Film Noir of the Weekhttp://www.noiroftheweek.com/ennoreply@blogger.com (Steve Eifert)Tue, 08 Jan 2019 01:51:23 PSTBlogger http://www.blogger.com515125http://feeds.feedburner.com/filmnoiroftheweek?format=skinfilm,noir,neo,noir,humphrey,bogart,robert,mitchum,filmmakers,classic,film,old,movies,movie,trailersTV & Filmsteve.eifert@gmail.comnofilm,noir,neo,noir,humphrey,bogart,robert,mitchum,filmmakers,classic,film,old,movies,movie,trailersA weekly look at a classic or neo film noir written by contributors at Back Alley Noir; filmmakers and film historiansA weekly look at a classic or neo film noir written by contributors at Back Alley Noir; filmmakers and film historiansfilmnoiroftheweekhttps://feedburner.google.comThe Driver (1978)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/4sAsX5Sz4tw/the-driver-1978.htmlBruce Dernneo-noirRyan O'NealWalter Hillsteve.eifert@gmail.comThu, 29 Jun 2017 10:07:06 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-6437028166391258283<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dge77v2_1uY/WVUbc-kiR5I/AAAAAAAAapY/qQ-0xXYTZVcniRltkdBnRkoZ-IRRDsHBACLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BDriver%2Bneo%2Bnoir%2B1978%2Bmovie%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="868" data-original-width="580" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dge77v2_1uY/WVUbc-kiR5I/AAAAAAAAapY/qQ-0xXYTZVcniRltkdBnRkoZ-IRRDsHBACLcBGAs/s400/The%2BDriver%2Bneo%2Bnoir%2B1978%2Bmovie%2Bposter.jpg" width="266" /></a>This week we take a look at the intense neo-noir, <i>The Driver</i>. &nbsp;Directed by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1723-walter-hill">Walter Hill</a>, this cold neo is a perfect example of how film noir evolved into experimental crime films in the 1970s. <br /><br />No doubt inspired by <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/01/le-samoura-1967.html">Le Samourai</a></i>&nbsp;which itself was inspired by <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/02/this-gun-for-hire-1942.html">This Gun For Hire</a></i>, <i>The Driver</i> is a cold, lean piece of pure cinema. &nbsp;A night time world of criminals and angry cops.<br /><br />Film noir isn't known for car movies, but there are some great moments of criminals "on the lam" living and dying in cars. &nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/03/gun-crazy-1950.html">Gun Crazy</a></i> and the recent Criterion release of <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2005/06/they-live-by-night-1948-62005.html?q=they+live+by+night">They Live By Night</a></i> have some hypnotic crimes taking place with the point of view from inside the car looking out. &nbsp;The point of view draws the viewer into the driver's perspective and it's always mesmerizing. &nbsp;You almost always get a jolt of adrenaline when you feel you're in a real car on a real street corner. &nbsp;Walter Hill's <i>The Driver</i> takes those moments and makes an entire movie out of it.<br /><br />Starring a very disco cast, the film has barely any dialog. &nbsp;<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6905-bruce-dern">Bruce Dern</a> gets the most lines as the man chasing the "driver." Mostly he frustratingly barks at middle-aged-hard-life-cops played by day-player actors that peppered every crime films of the time. &nbsp;Beautiful <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6553-isabelle-adjani">Isabelle Adjani</a> is the female lead. &nbsp;And <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/31070-ryan-o-neal">Ryan O'Neal</a> is the handsome driver. &nbsp;Sporting long-ish, wavy hair and an open collar, he looks more like a playboy trying to pick up Diane Keaton at a bar than a hardened criminal.<br /><br />Originally Steve McQueen and Robert Mitchum were at least close to playing the Ryan and Dern roles. &nbsp;The film would most definitely be more beloved -- even possibly a classified as a classic -- than forgotten if they had those guys in it. &nbsp;But would it be a better movie? &nbsp;I'm not so sure. &nbsp;Ryan has no actual backstory but his look just makes him more interesting. &nbsp;What is his story anyway? &nbsp;Hell, the guy doesn't even have a name. &nbsp;That's exactly what I thought watching the killer in <i>Le Samourai</i>. &nbsp;Why and how did they become what they are? &nbsp;O'Neal also has a great entrance. &nbsp;Slowly rising. &nbsp;Coming into frame one one of those man lifts that parking garage guys use to go up flights quickly. &nbsp;And Bruce Dern was never better than he was in the 70s. &nbsp;He looks like he could be Ryan's brother. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/H6OfYKzJJmQ/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H6OfYKzJJmQ?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br /><br />The film succeeds when you realize and accept there's not much plot or humor.<br /><br />Just enjoy the ride. <br /><br />It resists the Burt Reynolds joke-y 70s car movie hijinx and takes thing very seriously (and I love those fun Burt Reynolds comedies). &nbsp;Never do you think O'Neal is enjoying his driving or frustrating police. &nbsp;With a deadpan face and unmoving hair, it's all about the visuals in 70s neon-lit downtown LA and the pleasing sound of metal bending, tires squealing, and gears changing. &nbsp;It's amazing that McQueen turned the role down saying he didn't want to do "another car movie." &nbsp;It would have been one of his best. &nbsp;Instead, it's a pretty much forgotten film that was panned as pretentious in 1978. &nbsp;A box office bomb that would be a critical darling if it was put out today.<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IYEx35f_xww/WVUb-hqb6hI/AAAAAAAAapg/8BUuNXE3h4YO3-65FH0jBVk1CU2xb60XACLcBGAs/s1600/The%2BDriver%2B1978.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IYEx35f_xww/WVUb-hqb6hI/AAAAAAAAapg/8BUuNXE3h4YO3-65FH0jBVk1CU2xb60XACLcBGAs/s320/The%2BDriver%2B1978.jpg" width="320" /></a>With the release of <i>Baby Driver</i>, director Edgar Wright has made it clear that his film was made because of the inspiration of watching <i>The Driver</i> over and over again late night on the BBC. &nbsp;The Ryan Gosling film <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2011/11/drive-2011.html">Drive</a></i>, a completely different movie than <i>Baby Driver</i>, was also a direct tribute to the 1978 neo noir.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />You could pair off <i>The Driver</i> with a number of different films for a double feature. &nbsp;As I mentioned before, <i>They Live By Night</i>, <a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/01/le-samoura-1967.html"><i>Le Samourai</i></a>, and a number of other 70s thrillers like <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/38985-sorcerer">Sorcerer</a></i>, <i>Bullitt</i>, or even the equally panned romantic <i><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/movie-of-the-week-aloha-bobby-and-rose">Aloha, Bobby and Rose</a></i> would all make great double features with the beautiful, petal-to-the-metal neo-noir <i>The Driver</i>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Some would argue that a film like this shouldn't be considered noir. &nbsp;Well, they'd be wrong. &nbsp;It has all the elements of a film noir without trying to pretend to be from the 1940s. &nbsp;And it's a hell of a ride. <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="208" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://podomatic.com/embed/html5/episode/8490995?autoplay=false" width="504"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/4sAsX5Sz4tw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>3http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2017/06/the-driver-1978.htmlInferno (1953)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/OdrA4Fkk7Dg/inferno-1953.htmlRhonda FlemingRobert RyanRoy Ward Bakersteve.eifert@gmail.comThu, 04 May 2017 10:59:50 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-4677955231017750069<br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lBK5T1urlBQ/WQtJHwmBEkI/AAAAAAAAaSg/sMzgcxKiRyEAYh126fDiu5Qrgggq_vx_QCLcB/s1600/inferno%2B1953%2Bfilm%2Bnoir%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lBK5T1urlBQ/WQtJHwmBEkI/AAAAAAAAaSg/sMzgcxKiRyEAYh126fDiu5Qrgggq_vx_QCLcB/s400/inferno%2B1953%2Bfilm%2Bnoir%2Bposter.jpg" width="260" /></a>The 1953 3D survival adventure film <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/37198-inferno">Inferno</a></i> is probably not the first movie you think of when you hear the term "film noir." It's a brightly-lit color film about a man trying to survive in the desert after being left for dead by his young va-va-voom wife and double-crossing business partner. <br /><br />Donald Whitley Carson III sits behind a rock. The desert sun continues to burn his skin. But that's not what he's thinking about now. He's got his six-shooter propped against a stick. A small, scraggly rabbit is in his sights. Carson forgets about his revenge plans. Now it's about securing his first meal. He hasn't eaten for a very long time. He carefully pulls the trigger. The rabbit darts off but clearly it's been hit. Carson staggers to his feet. His one leg in a homemade splint slow him down but hunger drives him forward. Around the bend he finds his prey. In the mouth of a coyote who rips at his kill as it runs off. Robert Ryan is Carson. It's one of his most unique performances and he aces it. <br /><br />But is it noir? If you take a close look at the story you'll see why it is a film noir. As Eddie Muller recently put it, "It's <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/01/postman-always-rings-twice-1946.html">The Postman Always Rings Twice</a></i> in reverse." Leave it to Eddie, the Czar of Noir and host of <a href="http://noiralley.tcm.com/">Noir Alley on Turner Classic Movies</a>, to describe the film in under ten words. <i>Inferno</i> is about a young, attractive pair that decide, during a lustful and short relationship, to kill the woman's older husband. <br /><br />And Eddie Muller is right. It's a noir tale told from the perspective of the victim, instead of the killers like Lana Turner and John Garfield in <i>Postman</i>. In this story the victim&nbsp;<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/8253-robert-ryan">Robert Ryan</a>&nbsp;proves to be a guy you probably shouldn't mess with. Ryan is one of the kings of noir thanks to <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/06/set-up-1949.html?q=robert+ryan">The Set-Up</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2005/07/crossfire-1947-7112005.html?q=the+set-up">Crossfire</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2011/05/released-by-united-artist-in-1959-odds.html?q=the+set-up">Odds Against Tomorrow</a></i>. Ryan plays a rich, allegedly helpless guy that must survive the desert after being left there by his wife and her lover, whom only started the affair three days before the crime. Along the way, this unlikeable jerk finds himself and becomes a better person. Sounds corny, but Ryan impressively gains the audience's respect when his slowly stops thinking about revenge and just thinks about surviving.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/10160-rhonda-fleming">Rhonda Fleming</a> plays his wife and she's a feast for the eyes. I remember first seeing this film at The Film Forum in New York. I had spent the previous few years just immersed in black and white crime films. To see the Queen of Technicolor -- in 3D no less -- was stunning. Her red hair an amazing color. And they deck her out in the most flattering, colorful outfits they could find. She steals every scene she's in. <br /><br />Future Hammer horror director <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/26134-roy-ward-baker">Roy Ward Baker</a> cleverly cuts the film so that no longer that every 5 minutes the story switches from the scraggly bearded, broken-legged Ryan baking in the sand and the comely couple drinking and eating in their lavish homes. If you don't walk out of this film hungry and thirsty you weren't paying attention. <br /><br />The 3D effects are mostly to show how alone and helpless Ryan is in the desert. It does do some of that shooting-stuff-right-at-the-camera gimmicks 3D films from the classic era tended to do but mercifully it's saved until near the end when burning embers of an old coot's home are dropped into audience's laps. &nbsp;Henry Hull -- the <i>Werewolf of London</i> himself -- plays the old timer.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y1t6nN6SbYI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y1t6nN6SbYI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br /><br /><i>Inferno</i> is finally getting a quality release on DVD and it's got plenty of extras. May sure, if you do buy it, you get the <a href="https://www.twilighttimemovies.com/inferno-3d-2d-blu-ray/">new release from Twilight Time</a>. It's in 3D -- but this film uses the effect to enhance an already strong, compelling story. Film historian Alan Rode does a commentary track and his work is always entertaining. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v3aMqJ8bREI/WQtJIU2EgZI/AAAAAAAAaSk/tWQts2vRVe8twCYKQVfAx4vp9EJYq3p0ACLcB/s1600/inferno%2B1953%2Blobby%2Bcard%2Bfilm%2Bnoir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v3aMqJ8bREI/WQtJIU2EgZI/AAAAAAAAaSk/tWQts2vRVe8twCYKQVfAx4vp9EJYq3p0ACLcB/s320/inferno%2B1953%2Blobby%2Bcard%2Bfilm%2Bnoir.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><i>Inferno</i> is bright and colorful. But it's film noir. <br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="true" src="https://www.podomatic.com/embed/html5/episode/8435558?style=normal&amp;autoplay=false" style="height: 208px; width: 504px;"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/OdrA4Fkk7Dg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>0http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2017/05/inferno-1953.htmlBrief Encounter (1945)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/5FdslURrfHo/brief-encounter-1945.htmlBrit noirCelia JohnsonDavid LeanNoel CowardTrevor Howardsteve.eifert@gmail.comFri, 31 Mar 2017 14:17:09 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-6490679632698081397<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qnCQEfiNIgk/WN6VCDQ-IrI/AAAAAAAAZv8/DrsCr28vl8AHDvjjsptS_ruVpuZ4imXOwCLcB/s1600/Brief%2BEncounter%2BPoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qnCQEfiNIgk/WN6VCDQ-IrI/AAAAAAAAZv8/DrsCr28vl8AHDvjjsptS_ruVpuZ4imXOwCLcB/s400/Brief%2BEncounter%2BPoster.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk8UYa28eMw">Rachmaninoff piano concerto No. 2</a> blares over the shot of a British couple slowly walking through a train station. Never has the music in a film not matched the actions as it does in <i>Brief Encounter</i>. <br /><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/12238-david-lean"><br /></a><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/12238-david-lean">David Lean</a> directs <i>Brief Encounter</i> -- this classic tale of love and guilt in a post-war England train station. The story is based on a short <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/12718-no-l-coward">Noel Coward</a> play. Fleshed out to movie length, the film is one of those rare birds: A film that far outweighs its original form (as brilliant as the play is). Unlike <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/03/mildred-pierce-1945.html">Mildred Pierce</a></i> where murder and mystery is added to the plot, Lean is very careful to keep the story in place without trying to make it more attractive to film goers. <br /><br />The story is about a 40-ish housewife and mother that spends one day of the week away from the house shopping and occasionally catching a movie alone. One day she meets up with a charming doctor. They fall almost immediately. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/12725-celia-johnson">Celia Johnson</a> is Laura. <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/12726-trevor-howard">Trevor Howard</a>&nbsp; is Paul. <br /><br />Johnson isn't your typical 40s movie actress. If this was made in America, the part would be played by Lana Turner or by the "other" <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/07/laura-1944.html?q=laura">Laura</a></i> Gene Tierney. Instead, Laura is a plain-looking, needlepoint-loving bore. Not glamorous at all. But when she falls for Paul look out! Her face lights up. Her eyes seem to double in size and I suspect there isn't a man watching that doesn't understand why Paul falls for her fast. <br /><br />Paul is a tall, lean, handsome-ish doctor that appears to be obsessed with his job. He seems like a guy that never even considered falling in love until he helps Laura get a bit of grit out of one of her cow eyes at the Milford railway station station. &nbsp;Howard is in a surprising number of British crime and films noir. &nbsp;You can see him in <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2005/06/they-made-me-fugitive-1947-6262005.html?q=trevor+howard">They Made Me A Criminal</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2012/12/green-for-danger-1946.html?q=trevor+howard">Green For Danger</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2010/11/clouded-yellow-1950.html?q=trevor+howard">The Clouded Yellow</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/05/i-see-dark-stranger-1946.html?q=trevor+howard">I See a Dark Stranger</a></i> and most memorably in <i>The Third Man</i>.<br /><br />Both leads are fantastic. Obviously, the success of a film like this requires both to be solid actors and that they have palpable chemistry. The film was a smash hit in no small part because of it. <br /><br />Nominated for three Oscars in 1947 (including one for Johnson) it won none. It was beat out by <i>Best Years of Our Lives</i> for screenplay and director. Best actress went to Olivia de Havilland for the soapy <i>To Each His Own</i>. <i>It's a Wonderful Life</i> also had a number of nominations. But, somehow, the intimate and simple story of <i>Brief Encounter</i> is more timeless than <i>Best Years of Our Lives</i> and <i>It's a Wonderful Life</i> which feel more firmly set in their time. <br /><br /><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;"><div style="padding: 8px;"><div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><div style="background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div></div><div style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BSHzKrzAsHb/" style="color: black; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Celia Johnson with Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter #celiajohnson #trevorhoward #filmnoir</a></div><div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Skip McCoy (@filmnoirquoteoftheday) on <time datetime="2017-03-27T00:43:08+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Mar 26, 2017 at 5:43pm PDT</time></div></div></blockquote><script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script> Film noir elements are packed in. <br /><br />Laura's voice overs are the film's "engine." The voice overs are more of a confession and less of a way to convey plot points. When Laura's bland but nice husband asks why she "been a long way away" while she absently works out of her sewing basket she blurts out all her feels in her head, but in the room it's just more small talking about his crossword puzzle. <br /><br />The shadows and dark confined spaces are created by Robert Krasker. Director of photography Krasker would continue to define Brit noir with the true classics <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2010/09/odd-man-out-1947.html">Odd Man Out</a></i> and <a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/09/third-man-1949.html"><i>The Third Man</i></a>. <br /><br />The film is partially shot on location at Carn-forth railway station in England (renamed Milford railway station.) It's clock is a powerful icon used throughout the story. <br /><br />The couple head off to the movies a few times on their meet-up days. Enjoying Donald Duck cartoons and some fictional b-adventure films. Alas, they didn't take in an American crime movie. <br /><br />Adding to the film noir feel of this so-called woman's picture are the traps, guilt, fear and ultimately unsatisfied desires. <br /><br />It's a great film by a master filmmaker. Like Hitchcock, it's hard to put any of David Lean's films in a genre, but <i>Brief Encounter</i> is one of the great films noir. <br /><br />The best British films seem to mask the players' emotions. But <i>Brief Encounter</i>'s feelings are given away by Piano concerto number 2&nbsp;blaring -- exposing the hidden truth of two people in love but ultimately too afraid to act on it. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/R9vfDQT2sj0/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R9vfDQT2sj0?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>Written by Steve-O<br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="true" src="https://www.podomatic.com/embed/html5/episode/8400572?style=normal&amp;autoplay=false" style="height: 208px; width: 504px;"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/5FdslURrfHo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>2http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2017/03/brief-encounter-1945.htmlOne False Move (1992)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/KOxIDi3v6Oc/one-false-move-1992.htmlBill PaxtonBilly Bob ThorntonCarl FranklinCynda WilliamsMichael Beachneo-noirsteve.eifert@gmail.comThu, 09 Mar 2017 08:39:10 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-752176153732042569<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dz-MK3_87t4/WMGC8Sqm_GI/AAAAAAAAZhM/O3xP9OsZFBMgob23Akj47j1w39rpgb-_QCLcB/s1600/One-False-Move-poster-1020269202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dz-MK3_87t4/WMGC8Sqm_GI/AAAAAAAAZhM/O3xP9OsZFBMgob23Akj47j1w39rpgb-_QCLcB/s400/One-False-Move-poster-1020269202.jpg" width="270" /></a><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2053-bill-paxton">Bill Paxton</a> was something else. The Texan got his start about 40 years ago as a set dresser for New World Pictures before landing a bit part soon after in New World's cheap-o <i>Crazy Mama</i>. Paxton never looked back. His crooked smile was a welcome site in the 80s: <i>Stripes</i>, <i>Weird Science</i>, <i>The Terminator</i>, <i>Commando</i>, <i>Near Dark</i> and <i>Aliens</i>. Actors with his natural masculinity, dramatic and comic abilities were in desperate need in the 80s (and still today). He more than filled a need, he played roles that you couldn't imagine another actor doing. I don't think any supporting actor in an action film was as ever as good as Paxton in <i>Aliens</i> --going from cock-sure Marine to "Game over man!" defeatist is one of the funniest and honest parts in action movies. It made a great film even better by finally having someone be in full-on panic mode when things got very bad. <br /><br />Continuing into the 90s and beyond, Paxton alternated between big-budget blockbusters and small films, Paxton was always the most interesting thing on the screen no matter the role. <br /><br />In the film noir world, Paxton was actually in three films that are clearly in the film noir tent. And they're all outstanding. In 1998, he was top billed in the rural noir <i>A Simple Plan</i>. In 2001, he directed and starred in <i>Frailty</i>. Both of those are top heavy with fantastic performances and we'll no doubt cover them in future articles. <br /><br />But the one I wanted to highlight this week is <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/21128-one-false-move">One False Move</a></i>. It's a crime film to be sure. But the story is driven along by people and feelings that motivate them. It was essentially the first lead role for Paxton and he knocks it out of the park. Instead of playing it straight, Paxton give a good-old-boy, off-kilter performance that fits perfectly with the telling of the story. <br /><br />Initially, Dale 'Hurricane' Dixon (Paxton) is seen through the eyes of big-city police as just a hick Arkansas cop trying to help the real police solve a crime. As the story unfolds his ego is crushed then his past comes back to haunt him. You can see the gears in his head turning in the simple man's head as things get more and more complicated. <br /><br />The film intercuts between two stories. One of the amusing Hurricane and the LAPD cops, and the other the criminals on the lam quickly becoming more and more paranoid and unhinged. The crooks are played with gusto by pony-tailed <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/879-billy-bob-thornton">Billy Bob Thornton</a> (also the co-writer) and <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/87118-michael-beach">Michael Beach</a>. <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/87117-cynda-williams">Cynda Williams</a> plays Fantasia-- the beautiful black woman that ties all the stories together. <br /><br />The film was initially set to be a direct-to-video release but it turned out so well, it was sent to theaters to rave reviews. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-phNKhF9zWPM/WMGElDm51TI/AAAAAAAAZhY/IueDfCfIq8M9zLW8q3hiBeIRwE00cHHCwCLcB/s1600/Bill-Paxton-one-false-move.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-phNKhF9zWPM/WMGElDm51TI/AAAAAAAAZhY/IueDfCfIq8M9zLW8q3hiBeIRwE00cHHCwCLcB/s320/Bill-Paxton-one-false-move.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Roger Ebert wrote <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/one-false-move-1992">in 1992</a>, <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"On the very short list of great movies about violent criminals, <i>One False Move</i> deserves a place of honor, beside such different kinds of films as <i>In Cold Blood</i>, <i>Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer</i>, <i>Badlands</i>, <i>The Executioner's Song</i> and <i>At Close Range</i>. It is a great film." </blockquote><br />Watching it last week, it still holds up. It's great to see a film from that era not inspired by the Tarantino tsunami of sound and pop culture that influenced all crime films a few years after. It's a quiet rural noir with a sense of dread in the silence. Unlike other noirs of the era leaning heavily on camera gymnastics and venetian-blind shadows, it's shot (by director <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/21712-carl-franklin">Carl Franklin</a>) in a straightforward way making the grisly violence more terrifying when scenes end short -- sometimes right before violence. Deliberately slow paced, the film drinks in every moment. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bsRioSC-fgg/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bsRioSC-fgg?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><br /><br />I recommend you find <i>One False Move</i>. Then turn off your phone and watch it without distraction.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/KOxIDi3v6Oc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>1http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2017/03/one-false-move-1992.htmlCash on Demand (1961)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/p5RY9cCRKAY/cash-on-demand-1961.htmlAndré MorellHammer FilmsJacques GilliesPeter CushingRichard VernonWilfred Josephssteve.eifert@gmail.comFri, 13 Jan 2017 18:20:45 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-3874498907204764106<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ET1hh-qB5oE/WHkEwhuIroI/AAAAAAAAY5w/xPAa4sgXGVActxKLKXuhxd9coykx9XO6wCLcB/s1600/Cash%2BOn%2BDemand%2Blobby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ET1hh-qB5oE/WHkEwhuIroI/AAAAAAAAY5w/xPAa4sgXGVActxKLKXuhxd9coykx9XO6wCLcB/s400/Cash%2BOn%2BDemand%2Blobby.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>With the recent resurrection of <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5-peter-cushing">Peter Cushing</a> in <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/330459-rogue-one-a-star-wars-story">Star Wars</a></i>, I thought it'd be a good time to mention one of his earlier Hammer films this week, <i>Cash on Demand</i>.<br /><br />Like <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/12/the-silent-partner-1978.html">The Silent Partner</a></i>, this is a Christmas-time noir taking place in a bank during a robbery. <br /><br />The plot is crackerjack. &nbsp;A charming but ruthless crook (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/10029-andr-morell">André Morell</a>) abducts the wife and child of a bank manager (Cushing) and then masquerades as an insurance company detective while scheming to rob the institution in this crime drama. Unfortunately, some of the manager's employees learn about the plot and the terrified manager must beg them to remain silent.<br /><br />The story while clever isn't the only time a bank manager has had to deal with kidnapping in an attempt to rob a bank in movies. &nbsp;Off the top of my head, <i>Dirty Mary Crazy Larry</i> and <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2010/09/friends-of-eddie-coyle-1973.html?q=The+Friends+of+Eddie+Coyle">The Friends of Eddie Coyle</a></i> both use this as their means to rob banks. &nbsp;I admit I'm a sucker for any movie that has a clever con or robbery. &nbsp;<i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/83578-the-big-caper">The Big Caper</a></i>, for example, is craptastic but the plot involving planting bombs around town to spread out police while hitting the actual target puts the otherwise lousy movie in my favorite b-movie list. <br /><i><br /></i><i>Cash on Demand</i>'s con game was created by British television suspense writer Jacques "Jack" Gillies. Gillies wrote the story for a TV play a year before the film was made.<br /><br />The movie poster advertising the film in the US would have you think the film was filled with action and a sexy femme fatale. &nbsp;It's not. &nbsp;We -- the audience-- are only given views inside the bank with only occasional glimpses and phone calls from outside the business. &nbsp;The golden rule of filmmaking is "show don't tell." &nbsp;But this is just the opposite and it's riveting to witness.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qO0cKiSU0RQ/WHkFZQ01YLI/AAAAAAAAY50/kgIwcMbb5U0Suu2Z_S07LEWoil1_ydBKACLcB/s1600/Cash%2BOn%2BDemand%2BCushing%2BMorell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qO0cKiSU0RQ/WHkFZQ01YLI/AAAAAAAAY50/kgIwcMbb5U0Suu2Z_S07LEWoil1_ydBKACLcB/s320/Cash%2BOn%2BDemand%2BCushing%2BMorell.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Produced by Hammer Films for a pittance (rumored budget was $50,000) during their horror heydays, this is a tense thriller with a standout performance by Cushing whose performance as a Scrooge-like boss that is trying to outsmart criminals while attempting to keep his family safe anchors the movie. &nbsp;In one of his best roles, Cushing is straddled with playing an unlikeable guy, while the ruthless criminal is much more appealing. &nbsp;Cushing manages to sway viewers to his side by the end. &nbsp;It's a remarkable.<br /><br />As far as visuals, the film is handsome but unremarkable looking. &nbsp;The opening shots of the empty bank with overly dramatic music is the most interesting visual.<br /><br />The classical soundtrack created by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1130479-wilfred-josephs">Wilfred Josephs</a> is strong. &nbsp;Morell and <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/47000-richard-vernon">Richard Vernon</a> (you'll remember him from <i>Goldfinger</i>) are fine in their roles, but the film sits securely on the thin shoulders of Peter Cushing. <br /><br />We've mentioned a number of Hammer crime films here at Noir of the Week in the past including <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2006/11/stolen-face-1952.html?q=Stolen+Face">Stolen Face</a></i>&nbsp;and <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/10/bad-blonde-1953.html?q=Bad+Blonde">Bad Blonde</a></i>. &nbsp;But the best of the Hammer films would be this one and the noir-inspired but unfortunately generically titled <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/64524-nightmare">Nightmare</a></i> (1964).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzDr_dedXnx6VXnOglOSs_eo3flJcc0iDLViK-tmAL34qo8dryNaoc4PJYM0UFpAvN8LcDPe007NUk' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0' /></div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/p5RY9cCRKAY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>2http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2017/01/cash-on-demand-1961.htmlThe Silent Partner (1978)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/Vw4kFEMQeRk/the-silent-partner-1978.htmlChristopher PlummerCéline LomezElliott GouldJohn Candyneo-noirSusannah Yorksteve.eifert@gmail.comFri, 23 Dec 2016 08:12:49 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-6284606329999259521<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4BeVZSkE5x8/WF1CIWH6UZI/AAAAAAAAYv0/jsn8B-7qT5IA2AB_1UvI5wKNrR2m1ypZQCLcB/s1600/The%2BSilent%2BPartner%2B1978%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4BeVZSkE5x8/WF1CIWH6UZI/AAAAAAAAYv0/jsn8B-7qT5IA2AB_1UvI5wKNrR2m1ypZQCLcB/s400/The%2BSilent%2BPartner%2B1978%2Bposter.jpg" width="270" /></a>Is <i>The Silent Partner</i> the best Canadian crime film? That's a bit of a joke because I can't think of any other Canadian crime film. <br /><br />I first discovered the movie about 5 years ago. I'm a movie nerd, and this movie is so small and forgotten even the most die hard crime film fans have probably never heard of it. <br /><br />The film never got the correct distribution in theaters in the US, and wasn't rediscovered on VHS or TV the years following it's release. That's a shame. The movie bookends nicely with <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/827-elliott-gould">Elliot Gould</a>'s other neo-noir starrer from 5 years earlier&nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2013/11/the-long-goodbye-1973.html">The Long Goodbye</a></i>. Like Gould's interpretation of Philip Marlowe as a sleepwalking gumshoe trying to understand 70s Los Angeles, Gould cleverly makes his character in <i>The Silent Partner</i> something more than meets the eye.<br /><br /><a href="http://thenewbev.com/blog/2016/12/an-interview-with-elliott-gould/">Kim Morgan interviewed Gould recently</a> as part of the screening of the film <a href="http://thenewbev.com/">Christmas Eve at the New Beverly Cinema in LA</a>. Gould says his character Miles is "a very interesting metaphor in getting someone to come out and get involved in life." <br /><br />Gould plays a humble bank teller. He spends all his time alone with his fish, books and chess board in a cozy apartment that just begs to hang around in all day. He's shaken back to life when he find out a bank robbery is being planned at work. Instead if reporting it, he figures out a way to rip off the robber and bank. He wakes from his day to day life to find that he'll take a chance at a criminal act. <br /><br />The thing is, he discovers quickly that he's very good at being a manipulative criminal. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eDiuaSqiBg4/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eDiuaSqiBg4?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br />The most memorable scene in the film is the bank robbery by Santa Claus. Harry the fake Claus is played by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/290-christopher-plummer">Christopher Plummer</a>. It's a jaw-dropping performance. When he's not in disguise he's a overly-tanned slight man who wears eyeliner and long, manicured nails. A wholly original character. The best comparisons to other movie villains would be DeNiro's Mephistopheles in <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/01/angel-heart-1987.html?view=flipcard">Angel Heart</a></i> merged with Ben Kingsley in <i>Sexy Beast</i>. When Harry beats a woman nearly to death at his gym (to create an alibi) the gym guy says, "Harry, you really went too far this time." Ouch. He's smart and deadly right from the start. <br /><br />Harry realizes after the robbery that he was short changed a pile of Canadian cash. &nbsp;He quickly puts two-and-two together and hunts bank teller Miles down. <br /><br />And every time Harry thinks he can intimidate and pressure Miles into giving him the money, Miles finds a way to double cross him. It's not "cat and mouse" it's "cat and cat." <br /><br />Gould goes the extra mile here. If another actor was cast in the lead, every tip off and double cross would have been hinted at. Gould plays it straight. He takes sharp left turns at full speed without warning. And it drives the professional criminal Harry crazy. It's fun to watch and reminded me a bit of Richard Stark's Parker. You're only shown Miles' plan when it happens. <br /><br />The rest of the cast is strong, but the film is really about Miles and Harry. <br /><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13326-susannah-york"><br /></a><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13326-susannah-york">Susannah York</a>&nbsp;(Superman's mom the same year) and model/actress&nbsp;<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/93567-c-line-lomez">Céline Lomez</a> are the females in the film. York is frustrated after being dismissed by Gould shortly after a romantic hookup. But like most reveals you have no idea why until the finale. Equally stunning Lomez is under Plummer's Svengali spell until her ultraviolet end involving death by aquarium and a burial that would be approved by Hitchcock or Patricia Highsmith.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p1Xawg22azI/WF1IGRsZLTI/AAAAAAAAYwE/CDmYd-S_jDANXZEAtb7Gp5_nCMe-vVCzgCLcB/s1600/The%2BSilent%2BPartner%2B1978%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p1Xawg22azI/WF1IGRsZLTI/AAAAAAAAYwE/CDmYd-S_jDANXZEAtb7Gp5_nCMe-vVCzgCLcB/s320/The%2BSilent%2BPartner%2B1978%2Bposter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/7180-john-candy">John Candy</a> appear in the film well before he's a star. Even when he's doing his background miming, you can't help but look at him. A true movie star. <br /><br />A few touches are amusing watching today. When the bank robbery first happens, Miles becomes a bit of an unexpected media celebrity. A 70s version of a internet sensation. The mall Miles' bank is located is painted classic drab 70s brown and tan. The bank's security guard's "what the hell" comment cracks me up both time he says it. &nbsp;The fast food place near the bank is so Canadian they sell healthy juice instead of junk. York's huge apartment is one of those "only in movies" places that no assistant bank manager could ever afford. <br /><br />Finally, I should mention a few nods to classic noir. When York meets Gould for a ride to the company Christmas Party, she enters the scene atop a tall staircase just like Barbara Stanwyck in <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/12/double-indemnity-1944.html?q=Double+Indemnity">Double Indemnity</a></i>. And Christopher Plummer wears a ankle bracelet not unlike one worn by Stanwyck in the same film! <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-adiH7ueG0IE/WF1IGpqU8kI/AAAAAAAAYwI/778kG6DNNssGMeLMW_4jjqiYIZIIRjOkACLcB/s1600/The%2BSilent%2BPartner%2Blobby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-adiH7ueG0IE/WF1IGpqU8kI/AAAAAAAAYwI/778kG6DNNssGMeLMW_4jjqiYIZIIRjOkACLcB/s320/The%2BSilent%2BPartner%2Blobby.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />Directed expertly by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/93587-daryl-duke">Daryl Duke</a> and a perfectly constructed screenplay penned by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/323-curtis-hanson">Curtis Hanson</a> (who would reach even greater heights with his Christmas neo-noir <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/11/la-confidential-1997.html">LA Confidential</a></i>!). &nbsp;Music by the "Maharaja of the keyboard" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTJhHn-TuDY">Oscar Peterson</a> (his only film soundtrack.)<br /><br />If you're in LA, the film is playing at the <a href="http://thenewbev.com/">New Beverly Theater Christmas Eve</a>. Streamers can actually find the film in great shape on Amazon, Itunes or Google's <a href="https://www.fan.tv/movies/25338-the-silent-partner">movie streaming services</a>&nbsp;for only a few bucks (US).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4xoOUpi451s/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4xoOUpi451s?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Written by Steve-O</div><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/Vw4kFEMQeRk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>2http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/12/the-silent-partner-1978.htmlLA Confidential (1997)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/hXT6nVeE1Po/la-confidential-1997.htmlBrian HelgelandCurtis HansonDanny DeVitoDavid StrathairnGuy PearceJames CromwellKevin SpaceyKim Basingerneo-noirRobert TowneRon RifkinRussell Crowesteve.eifert@gmail.comSat, 26 Nov 2016 08:12:18 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-7605018207725662189<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-htPMO4wYH98/WDmz9b-109I/AAAAAAAAYf8/zLwy_m-rzoozw-HsuI2I9RLb4_RSwQb0gCLcB/s1600/la%2Bconfindential%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-htPMO4wYH98/WDmz9b-109I/AAAAAAAAYf8/zLwy_m-rzoozw-HsuI2I9RLb4_RSwQb0gCLcB/s640/la%2Bconfindential%2Bposter.jpg" width="425" /></a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: pt serif, georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: 19px;">“This is the City of the Angels, and you haven’t got any wings.”</span></blockquote><div style="font-family: &quot;pt serif&quot;, georgia, &quot;times new roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: &quot;pt serif&quot;, georgia, &quot;times new roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">In&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Life Magazine</span>’s <b>Film Noir: 75 Years of the Greatest Crime Films</b></span>, writer J.I. Baker details the connection between tabloids and pulp fiction. At a time when respectable journalism reigned supreme, post-war publications like&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>New York Daily</b></span>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Confidential</span>&nbsp;</b>magazine crashed the party with gossip and a “shocking, sleazy sensibility” that caught on in the culture. Authors Cornell Woolrich, James M. Cain, and, more recently, James Ellroy, lifted these lurid headlines as story inspiration, while Hollywood followed suit with a visual style modeled after photographer Arthur Fellig (a.k.a. Weegee).</div></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/323-curtis-hanson">Curtis Hanson</a> grew up in the eye of this lurid storm. Born in 1945 and enthralled by his Los Angeles hometown (his uncle<span class="footnote" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/27/l-a-confidential-1997/#fn-1584-1" id="fnref-1584-1" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #bf0f0f; transition: all 100ms ease-in;">1</a></span>&nbsp;supplied clothes for stars like Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe), Hanson decided to pursue a career in magazine photography<span class="footnote" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/27/l-a-confidential-1997/#fn-1584-2" id="fnref-1584-2" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #bf0f0f; transition: all 100ms ease-in;">2</a></span>&nbsp;before he even finished high school. The dropout would ultimately trade his stills for a movie camera come the 1970s, but interest in a make-believe business&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">never waned. In fact, when it came time for Hanson to adapt Ellroy’s 1990 novel L.A. Confidential, the director&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">played every sensational angle he could find: criminal scandal, colorful postcards, and tabloid pages pulled from the time period. “That’s the image that they’re selling you of Los Angeles”, Hanson explained on <b>Charlie Rose</b>, “we wanted to peel back that image and show you what’s really going on.”</span></div><br /><figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1587" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 1400px;"><img alt="The film's novel-esque artwork." class="size-full wp-image-1587" src="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/o-LA-CONFIDENTIAL-SEQUEL-facebook.jpg" height="1050" sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" srcset="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/o-LA-CONFIDENTIAL-SEQUEL-facebook.jpg 1400w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/o-LA-CONFIDENTIAL-SEQUEL-facebook-300x225.jpg 300w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/o-LA-CONFIDENTIAL-SEQUEL-facebook-768x576.jpg 768w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/o-LA-CONFIDENTIAL-SEQUEL-facebook-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/o-LA-CONFIDENTIAL-SEQUEL-facebook-400x300.jpg 400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin: 36px auto 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="1400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">The film’s novelistic artwork.</figcaption></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><i>L.A. Confidential</i> (1997) is a paradise with secrets behind every palm tree. A parade of glossy images (many of which Hanson used in his studio pitch) grace the opening montage, while&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Hush-Hush</span>&nbsp;magazine editor Sid Hudgens (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/518-danny-devito">Danny DeVito</a>) paints 1953 L.A. with smarmy narration. Sure, crooked cops and organized crime roam the streets, but the dazzle of movie premieres and a post-war economy make it so nobody has a good enough reason to rock the boat. This includes the film’s trio of policemen: Ed Exley (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/529-guy-pearce">Guy Pearce</a>), a career-minded square, Bud White (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/934-russell-crowe">Russell Crowe</a>), a brute with a bad temper, and Jack Vincennes (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1979-kevin-spacey">Kevin Spacey</a>), a hot shot who enjoys only the perks of his profession. Each joined the force with noble intent, but those feelings have long since expired. When asked why he become a cop, all Vincennes can muster is a defeated “I don’t remember.”</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The obvious touchstone for the film is Roman Polanski’s <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/09/chinatown-1974.html">Chinatown</a></i>&nbsp;(1974). Both utilize broken (anti-)heroes and the history of Los Angeles as a backdrop, while detailing the fall of the working class and native peoples for the posh crowd. Instead of Noah Cross and his plight to control&nbsp;the city’s water supply,&nbsp;</span><i>L.A. Confidential</i><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;</em></strong>offers up Pierce Patchett (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/11064-david-strathairn">David Strathairn</a>), a big whig pornographer with plans to construct a local highway. Both of equally wealthy disposition, they present an evil that goes beyond themselves and speaks to the society (and show business) that allows them to thrive.</div><br /><figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1588" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 1400px;"><img alt="&quot;Is there more to that, or am I supposed to guess?&quot;" class="size-full wp-image-1588" src="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/kevin-spacey-and-guy-pearce-in-l.a.-konfidentiellt-1997.jpg" height="700" sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" srcset="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/kevin-spacey-and-guy-pearce-in-l.a.-konfidentiellt-1997.jpg 1400w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/kevin-spacey-and-guy-pearce-in-l.a.-konfidentiellt-1997-300x150.jpg 300w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/kevin-spacey-and-guy-pearce-in-l.a.-konfidentiellt-1997-768x384.jpg 768w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/kevin-spacey-and-guy-pearce-in-l.a.-konfidentiellt-1997-1024x512.jpg 1024w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/kevin-spacey-and-guy-pearce-in-l.a.-konfidentiellt-1997-600x300.jpg 600w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin: 36px auto 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="1400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">“America isn’t ready for the real me.”</figcaption></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Where&nbsp;</span><i>L.A. Confidential</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;differs from <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/11057-robert-towne">Robert Towne</a>’s script, is that Patchett is merely a placeholder&nbsp;for the true criminal–the police– to blanket themselves. The Nite Owl Massacre, a coffee shop shooting that connects the lead trio, is instantly passed off as the handiwork of black convicts. Exley is appointed to the case as media eye candy, but the slapdash cover-up that comes with it offers zero chance for a closer look. The sergeant is promoted and praised, but even then, he’s weary of the convenience that came with his ghetto scapegoats. It isn’t until a turn of guilt from Vincennes<span class="footnote" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/27/l-a-confidential-1997/#fn-1584-3" id="fnref-1584-3" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #bf0f0f; transition: all 100ms ease-in;">3</a></span>&nbsp;that Nite Owl gets a second glance; and by then, both cops are positive they won’t like what they’ll find.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Hanson and co-writer <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4723-brian-helgeland">Brian Helgeland</a> spent two years deconstructing this mystery for the big screen. The novel, a 500 page behemoth that spans seven years and eight storylines, was a task that many deemed to be unfilmable. Wisely, the duo relegated themselves to the Exley-White-Vincennes subplot, and tossed anything that didn’t support their particular points. “I wanted the audience to be challenged but at the same time I didn’t want them to get lost” said Hanson, who combined and diverted characters to make for a more concise viewing. This approach succeded&nbsp;in keeping the book’s core themes while allowing space to develop even the most minimal of characters. Lynn Bracken (<span style="color: black;">an Academy Award winning <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/326-kim-basinger">Kim Basinger</a></span>), the call girl who captivates White, embodies&nbsp;</span><i>L.A. Confidential</i>’s broken wings&nbsp;despite being&nbsp;in only&nbsp;fifteen of the film’s 138 minutes.</div><br /><figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1590" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 1400px;"><img alt="Hanson and Basinger on the set." class="size-full wp-image-1590" src="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/le-realisateur-curtis-hanson-l-a-confidential-8-mile-est-mort-4440739104e265c70.jpeg" height="700" sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" srcset="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/le-realisateur-curtis-hanson-l-a-confidential-8-mile-est-mort-4440739104e265c70.jpeg 1400w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/le-realisateur-curtis-hanson-l-a-confidential-8-mile-est-mort-4440739104e265c70-300x150.jpeg 300w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/le-realisateur-curtis-hanson-l-a-confidential-8-mile-est-mort-4440739104e265c70-768x384.jpeg 768w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/le-realisateur-curtis-hanson-l-a-confidential-8-mile-est-mort-4440739104e265c70-1024x512.jpeg 1024w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/le-realisateur-curtis-hanson-l-a-confidential-8-mile-est-mort-4440739104e265c70-600x300.jpeg 600w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin: 36px auto 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="1400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">Hanson and Basinger on the set.</figcaption></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">It helps that Hanson truly believes in his&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">film noir</em>&nbsp;values, and isn’t simply using them for decoration. Past films like <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/39074-the-bedroom-window">The Bedroom Window</a></i>&nbsp;(1987) and <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/24249-bad-influence">Bad Influence</a></i>&nbsp;(1990)&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">relied more on clever setups than actual payoff, but with&nbsp;</span><i>L.A. Confidential</i><em style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold;">,&nbsp;</em>Hanson develops a much stronger sense of storytelling.&nbsp;He relates to Ellroy’s Los Angeles, a common thread that both grounds the genre’s strengths and avoids the cheesiness that so often comes with modern noir. Characters that could’ve been disposable, like lowlife Hudgens or District Attorney Loeb (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/12122-ron-rifkin">Ron Rifkin</a>), are instead used to further the gritty parallels between gossip and government. It’s also worth noting the influence of Nicholas Ray, whose style (<i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/08/in-lonely-place-1950.html?q=In+a+Lonely+Place">In a Lonely Place</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/11/on-dangerous-ground-1952.html?q=On+Dangerous+Ground">On Dangerous Ground</a></i>) influences everything from the abusive affair to the occupational frustration of police work.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ubs6iUMdyo">“Rollo Tomasi”</a>&nbsp;scene between Vincennes and Captain Smith (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2505-james-cromwell">James Cromwell</a>) is Hanson’s crowning bit of suspense, invented solely–and brilliantly– for the sake of the film. Amidst small talk and late night coffee, Vincennes realizes Smith’s guilt just as the Captain turns to shoot him. No build-up, just a bullet and the brief, glazed moments that remain. Both a turning point (his final words prove Smith’s undoing) and a worthy curtain closer for Vincennes, it’s the most shocking murder this side of <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2010/08/to-live-and-die-in-la-1985.html?q=To+Live+and+Die+in+L.A.">To Live and Die in L.A.</a></i><i style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold;">&nbsp;</i>(1985).</div><br /><figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1589" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 1400px;"><img alt="White and Exley pulling back the LAPD curtain of corruption." class="wp-image-1589 size-full" src="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/laconfidential.jpg" height="700" sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" srcset="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/laconfidential.jpg 1400w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/laconfidential-300x150.jpg 300w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/laconfidential-768x384.jpg 768w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/laconfidential-1024x512.jpg 1024w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/laconfidential-600x300.jpg 600w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin: 36px auto 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="1400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">White and Exley begin to piece the mystery together.</figcaption></figure><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The third act shootout, where Exley and White are pinned down in a motel, is another case of Hanson and Helgeland fabricating for Hollywood’s sake. In the novel, there’s no blaze of glory that leads to Smith’s death– he survives, akin to most evil men&nbsp;in film noir. Ellroy wasn’t sold on the change at first, but he eventually came around, explaining:</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">“Hanson proved me wrong on a couple things. When I read the script, I thought the shoot-out was preposterous. And you know what? In the movie it’s preposterous. Two guys holed up in a room where they kill 15 guys– it’s bulls**t. But you know what? It’s inspired bulls**t.”</i></blockquote></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;pt serif&quot;, georgia, &quot;times new roman&quot;, serif; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><div style="font-size: 19px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The duo spin a final farce for the media and get on with their improbable happy ending. Exley gets the glory, White gets an “ex-hooker and a trip to Arizona.” It’s a reserved touch to leave things off, but it speaks volumes to the artistry of Curtis Hanson. In a career that mostly defied auteur association, his most tangible thread as a storyteller was optimism– the eternal light at the end of the tunnel. It touches nearly all of his works, and with <i>L.A. Confidential</i>, his self-admitted masterpiece, it becomes a poetic capper to the exploitation, ambition, and seduction that preceded. Few own their wings in the City of the Angels, but Hanson,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8decbkMhFU">the Academy Award winner</a><span class="footnote" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/27/l-a-confidential-1997/#fn-1584-4" id="fnref-1584-4" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #bf0f0f; transition: all 100ms ease-in;">4</a></span>&nbsp;who passed away on September 20th, certainly made a strong case for consideration.&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Off the record, on the QT, and of course, very hush-hush.</span></div><div style="font-size: 19px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6sOXrY5yV4g/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6sOXrY5yV4g?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 19px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 19px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 19px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; text-align: justify;">Written by Danilo Castro, and first published <a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/27/l-a-confidential-1997/">on&nbsp;</a></span><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/27/l-a-confidential-1997/">his excellent blog<span style="color: #333333; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; text-align: justify;">.</span></a></span></div><div style="font-size: 19px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 19px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"></span></div><ol style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: inside; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><li id="fn-1584-1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jack Hanson was owner of the popular&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Jax</em>&nbsp;women’s clothing shops in the 1960s.&nbsp;</span></li><li id="fn-1584-2" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hanson was photographer and later editor of&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Cinema</em>&nbsp;magazine.&nbsp;</span></li><li id="fn-1584-3" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Spacey modeled his performance after&nbsp;Dean Martin in&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">SOME CAME RUNNING</em></strong>(1958)&nbsp;</span></li><li id="fn-1584-4" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hanson and Helgeland won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1998.&nbsp;</span></li></ol></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/hXT6nVeE1Po" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>2http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/11/la-confidential-1997.htmlZodiac (2007)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/GdWSFPKWwWQ/zodiac-2007.htmlChloë Sevignydavid fincherHarris SavidesJake GyllenhaalJames VanderbiltJohn Carroll LynchJr.Mark Ruffaloneo-noirRobert Downeysteve.eifert@gmail.comTue, 25 Oct 2016 10:00:43 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-3384257475405679749<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.25; margin: 7.9375px 0px 3.51563px; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-89dUE2rcQEU/WA-MopSuuOI/AAAAAAAAYLE/-hV1O5ho44gN3T9W_a50RrYBMH-HgV_VwCLcB/s1600/zodiac%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; font-size: 3.2rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-89dUE2rcQEU/WA-MopSuuOI/AAAAAAAAYLE/-hV1O5ho44gN3T9W_a50RrYBMH-HgV_VwCLcB/s400/zodiac%2Bposter.jpg" width="270" /></a><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">“Just because you can’t prove it doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”</span></blockquote></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Few serial killers afflicted more fear in their time than the Zodiac. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the elusive murderer wreaked havoc on Northern California, racking up countless victims and taunting local press with clue-ridden cyphers. Whether hinting at his motives or threatening to “pick off kiddies as they come bouncing out” of a school bus, these submissions to the&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">San Francisco Chronicle</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;induced national terror– a mythos that surpassed nearly every serial killer before or since. But despite the efforts of&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Chronicle</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;reporters, conspiracy theorists, and the police, his true identity was never discovered. It is a mystery that, to this day, remains a mecca for true crime enthusiasts.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/7467-david-fincher">David Fincher </a>was no stranger to Zodiac lore. The director spent his childhood in San Anselmo during the initial killings, and was one of the aforementioned ‘kiddies’ who recalls his bus being escorted by Highway Patrol. As a young boy, he had come to see the serial killer as “the ultimate boogeyman”; a morbid fascination that ultimately drew him to the <i>Zodiac</i></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;project in 2005. Along with screenwriter <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/20204-james-vanderbilt">James Vanderbilt</a>, the exacting filmmaker felt it was his job to deconstruct the serial killer myth and make a clear distinction between fact and gestating fiction. Months were spent interviewing eyewitnesses, officers, and surviving victims, while police reports and the photography of Stephen Shore were researched for period recreation. By the time they sat down with SFPD Inspector Dave Toschi and&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">Chronicle</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;cartoonist&nbsp;Robert Graysmith&nbsp;(whose 1986 book inspired the film), the duo managed to inform the case experts of facts even they were unaware of.</span></div><figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1503" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 1250px;"><i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-15cJ7OnSQpA/WA-K_YBcCFI/AAAAAAAAYKw/wR5-YIcpRMUzxN0mH6Zd4CWul8qq3kq8ACLcB/s1600/fincher-zodiac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-15cJ7OnSQpA/WA-K_YBcCFI/AAAAAAAAYKw/wR5-YIcpRMUzxN0mH6Zd4CWul8qq3kq8ACLcB/s400/fincher-zodiac.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Fincher and Mark Ruffalo on the set.</td></tr></tbody></table></i></figure><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">As a result,&nbsp;</span><i>Zodiac</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;is a movie spilling over with information: locations, suspects, red herrings, and victims. Put in the rare situation of telling a story with undefined structure, Fincher and Vanderbilt take the narrative path less traveled and construct a methodical, densely layered account. Timestamps mark each scene so punctiliously it’s almost silly, while also forming a pace for the viewer that feels akin to a pricey episode of Cold Case Files</span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">.</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;This procedural air calls to mind classic&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">docu-noir</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;like <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2006/12/he-walked-by-night-1948.html">He Walked By Night</a></i></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;(1948) and <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2006/10/sniper-1952.html">The Sniper</a></i></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;(1952), but Fincher’s fetichism for the facts elevates&nbsp;</span><i>Zodiac</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;to levels previously untapped in the annals of serial killer cinema. In the words of&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">A.V. Club</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;critic Scott Tobias, it is “an obsessive movie about the nature of obsession.”</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">This trait is established in breathtaking scope through the opening sequence. Dated July 4th 1969, Fincher coasts the camera down a Vallejo street that oozes suburban bliss. Children twirling sparklers, Americana fireworks, and the tune “Easy to Be Hard” glide into view, while looming dread hangs somewhere offscreen. Darlene Ferrin (Ciara Hughes) and Michael Mageau (Lee Norris) park in isolation, but the privacy they seek is instantly cut down by the gunfire of the unseen Zodiac. Shot by cinematographer <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/10688-harris-savides">Harris Savides</a>, these attacks (and the several that follow) are given a disturbing sense of intimacy– short, violent bursts that bear more in common with real crime scenes than most moviegoers are accustomed to seeing.</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XM1prqHpRWk/WA-K_saVIeI/AAAAAAAAYK0/23KMuQbijV0uRxHObRSiclcApRdaXqdGQCLcB/s1600/zodiac-5227330ad6dcc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XM1prqHpRWk/WA-K_saVIeI/AAAAAAAAYK0/23KMuQbijV0uRxHObRSiclcApRdaXqdGQCLcB/s400/zodiac-5227330ad6dcc.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The film’s nocturnal artwork.</td></tr></tbody></table><figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1506" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 1250px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-align: center;">Fincher unveils each murder with similar panache, perhaps in part to make up&nbsp;for the fact that the rest of&nbsp;</span><span style="font-style: italic; text-align: center;">Zodiac</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-align: center;">&nbsp;is spent on nuts-and-bolts investigation. The unrewarding task falls to three core pursuers: Graysmith (<span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/131-jake-gyllenhaal">Jake Gyllenhaal</a></span>), the boy scout out of his depth, Toschi (<span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/103-mark-ruffalo">Mark Ruffalo</a></span>), the cop who inspired Steve McQueen’s character in <i>Bullitt</i></span><b style="box-sizing: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></b><span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-align: center;">(1968), and&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">Chronicle</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-align: center;">&nbsp;reporter Paul Avery (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/3223-robert-downey-jr">Robert Downey, Jr.</a>), a boozer who receives a death threat from the Zodiac. Clues and promising leads are frequent in these early years, so much so that Fincher uses another real life account, <i>All the President's Men</i></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-align: center;">&nbsp;(1976), as his reference point. From the fluorescent newsroom of the&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; text-align: center;">Chronicle</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-align: center;">&nbsp;to the seemingly infinite (and immaculate) cast of witnesses, the film uses&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-align: center;">journalism cliche as a front for something far more sinister on the back end.</span></figure><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">This is where the film’s&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">noir</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;pedigree begins to crack the pavement. The flood of evidence that began in August 1969<span class="footnote" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/03/zodiac-2007/#fn-1493-1" id="fnref-1493-1" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #bf0f0f; transition: all 100ms ease-in;">1</a></span>&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">gradually slows with little to show for it. Timestamps get farther apart, public interest wanes, and the most promising suspect,&nbsp;<span style="color: black;">Arthur Leigh Allen</span>&nbsp;(a sublime <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/3911-john-carroll-lynch">John Carroll Lynch</a>), is cleared through insufficient evidence. There’s no fictional resolution á la James Ellroy’s <i>The Black Dahlia</i></span><span class="footnote" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/03/zodiac-2007/#fn-1493-2" id="fnref-1493-2" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #bf0f0f; transition: all 100ms ease-in;">2</a></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;but rather a brazen two-minute “blackout”<span class="footnote" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/03/zodiac-2007/#fn-1493-3" id="fnref-1493-3" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #bf0f0f; transition: all 100ms ease-in;">3</a></span>&nbsp;that cuts between four years of news reports and popular music</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. When the film does return to its nicotine stained imagery for the final act, it is to a city that’s moved on. “People were outraged that this guy hadn’t been brought to justice,” Fincher explained to MTV, “until they drafted Joe Montana and nobody in San Francisco gave a sh– anymore.”</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0zqICTscX1A/WA-LAUfmbDI/AAAAAAAAYK8/0puRcVJD6TY4NACQgNXDhpbutSfm-DLagCLcB/s1600/zodiac-mark-ruffalo-anthony-edwards-koteas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0zqICTscX1A/WA-LAUfmbDI/AAAAAAAAYK8/0puRcVJD6TY4NACQgNXDhpbutSfm-DLagCLcB/s400/zodiac-mark-ruffalo-anthony-edwards-koteas.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left to right: Sgt. Jack Mulanax (Elias Koteas), Inspector William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), and Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) interviewing Arthur Leigh Allen (John Carroll Lynch).</td></tr></tbody></table><figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1504" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 1250px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: inline !important; text-align: center;">And yet, the case remains urgent to Graysmith. His&nbsp;interest initially intrigued wife Melanie (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2838-chlo-sevigny">Chloë Sevigny</a>), but has since turned into a full-time obsession; complete with false leads (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIy-X8-pEoU">the unnerving&nbsp;basement scene</a>) and an unofficial alliance with Inspector Toschi. When the two men revisit a murder scene in 1977, eight years after the fact, the motives of both become uncomfortably clear: they aren’t driven by a sense of justice or belated heroism, but simply their inability to let it go. Zodiac poses a puzzle neither can keep from trying to solve, and even with the deterioration of a drug-addled Avery, their pursuit remains undeterred. When Graysmith finally does admit to his obsession, the reasoning is painfully simple:</div></figure><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">“I… I need to know who he is… I need to stand there, I need to look him in the eye and I need to know that it’s him.”</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">That look is all Graysmith gets. And even then, upon sharing a gaze with Allen, it’s hamstrung by the DNA tests that prove him innocent. The closest Graysmith or Toschi come to a resolution is when both attend the premiere of&nbsp;<i>Dirty Harry</i></span><span class="footnote" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/03/zodiac-2007/#fn-1493-4" id="fnref-1493-4" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #bf0f0f; transition: all 100ms ease-in;">4</a></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;in 1971– where a fellow viewer even taunts how “Harry Callahan did a hell of a job with your case.” The culmination to this towering pile of evidence ends like it began; with driven men grasping at straws. In his final, withered scene, Avery offers up the film’s most self-aware statement:</span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">“Do you know more people die in the East Bay commune every three months than that idiot ever killed? He offed a few citizens, wrote a few letters, and then faded into a footnote.”</span></blockquote><figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1505" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin: 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 2048px;"><i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0AsbelD3DNo/WA-LAOlmZWI/AAAAAAAAYK4/mGnEXsTqEdg9L_-ZBp_58R2ocPpEZFi4wCLcB/s1600/still-of-jake-gyllenhaal-in-zodiac-2007-large-picture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0AsbelD3DNo/WA-LAOlmZWI/AAAAAAAAYK4/mGnEXsTqEdg9L_-ZBp_58R2ocPpEZFi4wCLcB/s400/still-of-jake-gyllenhaal-in-zodiac-2007-large-picture.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) pursuing a lead.</td></tr></tbody></table></i><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: left;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The film’s coda finds Michael Mageau, the surviving victim of the Vallejo attack, identifying Allen’s picture in a 1991 photo lineup. Even with this tentative attempt at closure, however,&nbsp;Zodiac&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">feels as desperate for answers going out as it did the previous two and a half hours.<span class="footnote" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/03/zodiac-2007/#fn-1493-5" id="fnref-1493-5" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #bf0f0f; transition: all 100ms ease-in;">5</a></span></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;The obsession is never satisfied– least of all, for the characters that Fincher places at the center of the story. Zodiac’s myth may have ended five lives,<span class="footnote" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.25px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/03/zodiac-2007/#fn-1493-6" id="fnref-1493-6" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; color: #bf0f0f; transition: all 100ms ease-in;">6</a></span></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;but those who survived suffered a far lengthier demise of spirit.</span></figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">It’s unfortunate that&nbsp;</span><i>Zodiac</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;is regularly left out of the&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: inherit;">film noir</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;conversation; the pessimism, failed heroics, and futile attempts at justice are straight from the genre’s handbook, while moody visuals and case info&nbsp;arrive so complex they’re practically&nbsp;exhausting to take in. Some may even say maddening, but Fincher, Vanderbilt, and their sprawling yarn are fully aware that the mystery is what endures. Answers are cheap, and the meandering fate behind their failed trio say more about man’s dark side than a psycho with a gun ever could.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><b style="box-sizing: inherit;">Trivia:</b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;In a film loaded with historical accuracy,&nbsp;</span><i>Zodiac</i><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: center;">’s only liberty was the fictionalized friendship between Robert Graysmith and Paul Avery.</span></div><br /><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="407" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BTkMXuYAD4M?feature=oembed" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-top: 24px; max-width: 100%;" width="723"></iframe></div><div class="footnotes" id="footnotes-1493" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit;"><h4><div style="font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px;"></div><ol><li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first Zodiac letter to the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Chronicle</em>&nbsp;arrived on August 12th, 1969.&nbsp;</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">&nbsp;Fincher was actually slated to direct the 2006 adaptation of&nbsp;<i>The Black Dahlia</i>&nbsp;before creative differences led to his departure.&nbsp;</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The “blackout” was trimmed for theatrical release, but later restored on the DVD.&nbsp;</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Dirty Harry'</em>s antagonist, the Scorpio, was loosely based on the Zodiac.&nbsp;</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The theatrical cut is&nbsp;157 minutes, while the Director’s Cut runs&nbsp;162 minutes.&nbsp;</span></span></li><li><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Five murders have been confirmed, though Zodiac claimed to have killed 37 people.&nbsp;</span></span></li></ol><div style="font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px;"></div></h4><div style="font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px;">Written by Danilo Castro, and first published on <a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/10/03/zodiac-2007/">his excellent blog</a>.</div><div style="font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: &quot;PT Serif&quot;, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; font-size: 19px;"><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/GdWSFPKWwWQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>2http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/10/zodiac-2007.htmlThe Red House (1947)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/rdTN97yLiOY/the-red-house-1947.htmlDelmer DavesEdward G. RobinsonJulie LondonLon McCallisterRory Calhounsteve.eifert@gmail.comTue, 14 Mar 2017 16:08:23 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-6700595671907607016<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nwevjDkLNBE/V-K8XP6OLEI/AAAAAAAAX-U/1DcTlbCdsA4W174fM0-5-Po5D9TVpFHtACLcB/s1600/The%2BRed%2BHouse%2B1947%2Bposter.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nwevjDkLNBE/V-K8XP6OLEI/AAAAAAAAX-U/1DcTlbCdsA4W174fM0-5-Po5D9TVpFHtACLcB/s400/The%2BRed%2BHouse%2B1947%2Bposter.jpeg" width="263" /></a><br /><i>The Red House</i> is one of the first rural noirs. <br /><br />Some casual noir fans may be surprised that so many noir stories take place outside the rain-soaked dark alleys of the city. &nbsp;"Rural noir" has been happening since the beginning of the noir movement with Albert Dekker crawling out of a abandoned mansion in the swamp in <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/37039-among-the-living">Among the Living</a></i>. &nbsp;It continued on with some truly great films like the atmospheric greats <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2006/10/moonrise-1948.html">Moonrise</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/11/on-dangerous-ground-1952.html">On Dangerous Ground</a></i> (that one at least starts in the mean streets of the city).<br /><br />And as Gary notes at <a href="https://noirworthwatching.blogspot.com/2016/09/rural-noir-taking-refuge.html">NoirWorthWatching</a>, Rural noir is as big as it ever was.<br /><br /><i>The Red House</i> is perhaps the most well known of the bunch due to it being in the public domain. &nbsp;And --like <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/12/too-late-for-tears-aka-killer-bait-1949.html">Too Late for Tears</a></i> -- was available in nearly every bargain film noir DVD collections released. &nbsp;Every collection had the same copy. &nbsp;It looks like the movie was fished out of <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13566-edward-g-robinson">Edward G. Robinson</a>'s sunken car after the movie wrapped. &nbsp;(As I mention below, that's not necessarily a bad thing.)<br /><br />This year, along with many other noir, it was re-released on DVD in great shape.<br /><br />Unfortunately, this isn't the best Rural noir or Edward G. Robinson film noir. &nbsp;But it is worth a look again thanks to the films strangeness.<br /><br />First, the teenagers in the film. &nbsp;All the actors seem to be the right age except for the second billed <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/105795-lon-mccallister">Lon McCallister</a>. &nbsp;His crow's feet and receding hair line made me think he should probably consider the advantages of a reverse mortgage when he starts blabbing on about buying a little house with <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/50760-julie-london">Julie London</a>. &nbsp;His scenes with his single mother reach David-Lynch levels of creepiness. &nbsp;Like when he kisses his mother full on the lips before insisting she have fun on her honeymoon. &nbsp;Writers try to explain his age by saying that farm boys went to high school years longer due to having to take so much time off to take care of the family farms.<br /><br />London was one of the inspirations for Jessica Rabbit (along with Rita Hayworth's Gilda and Veronica Lake's peek-a-boo hair). &nbsp;You'll quickly figure out what parts when London strips down for a swim with Lon. &nbsp;She literally steals every scene she's in. &nbsp;London would quickly change tracks in her career focusing on her lounge act, with occasional acting roles. &nbsp;The rarely-seen <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/36760-the-3rd-voice">The 3rd Voice</a></i> is one worth seeking out. &nbsp;Being the body for Jessica Rabbit and the ex-wife of Jack Webb is enough to make her film noir royalty. &nbsp;I'm old enough to remember her as Dixie on <b>Emergency! </b>and I could never understand why men where jumping through hoops over the older cigarette-aged nurse on the show. &nbsp;Trivia: London got the <b>Emergency!</b> gig so producer Webb wouldn't have to pay her any more alimony.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/105796-allene-roberts">Allene Roberts</a>&nbsp;plays the adopted daughter of Robinson and <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/3362-judith-anderson">Judith Anderson</a>. &nbsp;She has one of those breathy teenage girl voices that EVERY girl had in movies around this time. &nbsp;It's annoying. &nbsp;But she does a very good job as a troubled coming-of-age girl.<br /><br />For anyone that thinks the 40s were a more innocent time should check out <i>The Red House</i>. &nbsp;All the girls are sexualized, with Roberts walking around in tight sweaters an bullet bras -- and she's the good girl. &nbsp;Not to mention 20-something <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/19181-rory-calhoun">Rory Calhoun</a> picking up high-school aged London. &nbsp;(Calhoun is unfortunately known today as an odd&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PaxLSxQblM">Simpsons reference</a>)<br /><br />As for the adults, Robinson and Judith Anderson first appear to be husband and wife. &nbsp;In fact they are brother and sister -- his sister giving up her life for her brother. &nbsp;Their daughter turns out not to be their daughter. &nbsp;Without giving away too much, it's clever how the film makers make us assume their relationships when really it's much darker.<br /><br />Robinson's best film noir roles were all right around this time. &nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2010/01/stranger-1946.html">The Stranger</a>, <a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2005/12/scarlet-street-1945-12052005.html">Scarlet Street</a>, <a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/07/woman-in-window.html">Woman in the Window</a></i>, <i>Key Largo</i> and <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/12/double-indemnity-1944.html">Double Indemnity</a></i> all were released within 5 years of this one. &nbsp;All are superior to this. &nbsp;I will say he does his bug-eyed crazy acting that reminds me of his gangster films like <i>Little Caesar</i>.<br /><br />Anderson isn't given much to do. &nbsp;Which is a shame. &nbsp;She does have a moment when she demands to know if teenage Roberts was touched by her brother.<br /><br />Moments like that are creepy but probably not in the way the film makers intended. &nbsp;The direction (by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/76981-delmer-daves">Delmer Daves</a> -- director of <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2006/03/dark-passage-1947.html">Dark Passage</a></i> also in '47) is surprisingly flat and the music -- especially the romantic, innocent music over the teenagers scenes-- is so generic that its clear no thought was put into the soundtrack. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rf56tvfsHkM/V-K8XRRFarI/AAAAAAAAX-Y/iAcHHVzLXMYSCw7etD5cK07eODBSoQBcQCLcB/s1600/The%2BRed%2BHouse%2B1947%2Blobby%2Bcard.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rf56tvfsHkM/V-K8XRRFarI/AAAAAAAAX-Y/iAcHHVzLXMYSCw7etD5cK07eODBSoQBcQCLcB/s320/The%2BRed%2BHouse%2B1947%2Blobby%2Bcard.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The film reminds me a bit of <i>Blue Velvet</i>-- where everyday life is stripped away to reveal horrible secrets and violence. But it's nowhere near in the same league. Worth a watch though and the ending is satisfying.<br /><br />one final note: &nbsp;Advantages of a bad print. &nbsp;I will say that I enjoyed this movie more watching a bad print of it. &nbsp;It gave it a more chilling quality. &nbsp;Cleaned up beautifully on DVD is great, but the film actually loses some of it's mystery. &nbsp;The same could be said for other movies I watched for years like <i>Key Largo</i> and <i>Foreign Correspondent</i>. &nbsp;The copies I first saw appeared like the film was recovered from the wreckage of the movies actions, left out in the rain, put through a broadcast filmchain and transferred to video.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5k_Mg7YC3SE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5k_Mg7YC3SE?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br /><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7" style="background: #fff; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.5) , 0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: 99.375%;"><div style="padding: 8px;"><div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"><div style="background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;"></div></div><div style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BKrZSEfhxLv/" style="color: black; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">#edwardgrobinson #alleneroberts Edward G. Robinson in The Red House 1947</a></div><div style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by Skip McCoy (@filmnoirquoteoftheday) on <time datetime="2016-09-23T00:18:27+00:00" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">Sep 22, 2016 at 5:18pm PDT</time></div></div></blockquote><script async="" defer="" src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/rdTN97yLiOY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>1http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/09/the-red-house-1947.htmlSe7en (1995)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/9xQCa3hej1g/se7en-1995.htmlbrad pittdavid finchermorgan freemanneo-noirsteve.eifert@gmail.comSun, 28 Aug 2016 06:26:20 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-7433790705019960148<i>Editor's note: This week, Danilo Castro at <a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/2016/08/12/se7en-1995/">Film Noir Archive</a> reminds us of the great Se7en -- a film that's now over 20 years old. </i><br /><i><br /></i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3JtyBqSpgHM/V8LmNyVXs1I/AAAAAAAAX2A/TTzMdZ7wPMg_SpqiIbun_-FI1LJmlTiVgCLcB/s1600/se7en-movie_114907-1600x1200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3JtyBqSpgHM/V8LmNyVXs1I/AAAAAAAAX2A/TTzMdZ7wPMg_SpqiIbun_-FI1LJmlTiVgCLcB/s400/se7en-movie_114907-1600x1200.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><blockquote><b>“Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world’s a fine place and worth fighting for.’ I agree with the second part.”</b></blockquote><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/7467-david-fincher">David Fincher</a> was done with Hollywood by 1995. “I thought I’d rather die from colon cancer than do another movie,” he famously mused– the cause&nbsp;of production woes and critical reception to 1992’s&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Alien 3</em></strong>. Nevertheless, New Line Cinema was keen on Fincher’s talent, and sent him a script about a serial killer who murders based on the seven deadly sins. Titled&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">SE7EN</em></strong>,&nbsp;it concluded with a brutal twist that the studio had revised to reflect more traditional action-thrillers. As it turns out, however, Fincher was given Andrew Kevin Walker’s original draft by mistake, and was so drawn to the story’s power that he agreed to direct. He found the film to be more of a “meditation on evil” than a “police procedural,” and his final product reflects this vision with disturbing clarity.</div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">As a film noir,&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">SE7EN</em></strong>&nbsp;is one of the most merciless to ever hit the mainstream. Lead detectives William Somerset (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/192-morgan-freeman">Morgan Freeman</a>) and David Mills (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/287-brad-pitt">Brad Pitt</a>) hit the ground running with their first case;&nbsp;a gruesome, unconventionally strategic&nbsp;murder. Wallpaper is peeling off the walls. Sunlight is nowhere to be found. Dreariness had laid waste to everything in sight, especially the overweight man drowned in his spaghetti sauce. Somerset, the elder statesman with a week before retirement, quietly inspects the body. Mills, the cocky youngster sent in to replace him, cracks a few jokes. It calls to mind the patented buddy cop blueprint, but Fincher has more in mind for his duo than typical rapport, and the discovery of the word “gluttony” on the wall suggests a very specific intent for their suspect.</div><br /><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_945" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em auto; max-width: 100%; width: 723px;"><img alt="David Fincher onset with Freeman." class="size-full wp-image-945" src="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/tumblr_n3j22jz2kg1qisxvio5_500-2.png" height="240" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin: 36px auto 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">David Fincher directing&nbsp;Freeman.</figcaption></figure><br /><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">Each of&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">SE7EN</em></strong>’s murders service this specific brutality; from a vain woman given the option to commit suicide or live deformed, to a slothful addict tied to a bed and barely kept alive for a year. The latter victim, along with a lustful prostitute later on, are&nbsp;particularly shocking displays&nbsp;that drive home the fact the killer is no amateur– his actions are meticulous, patient, and purposeful. Weighty ties to literature like Dante's Inferno&nbsp;and Paradise Lost&nbsp;are eventually implemented&nbsp;by Somerset, and in doing so, the film ascends&nbsp;past its gore&nbsp;and into the realm of the philosophical. It’s obvious that the killer, later revealed to be a man named John Doe (a staggeringly effective <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1979-kevin-spacey">Kevin Spacey</a>), considers his actions to be works of art, and the brilliance of Walker’s script is that he allows him&nbsp;to make a compelling case. In a world this morally repulsive, Doe&nbsp;is simply punishing the sinners.</div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">John Doe’s rhetoric affects his pursuers in radically different ways. For Somerset, the coarse, aging bachelor, it comes as the final blow to a crippling faith. Like so many of noir’s battered cops, Somerset has&nbsp;amassed a lifetime of dealing with filth and amoral misfortunes. He&nbsp;has nothing more than his profession to define him– upon being asked, the closest he came to normality was almost getting married once. The deafening silence of his personal life is filled by the ticking of a bedside metronome. Whatever hope he has in mankind is minimal, and, as a result, is desperately defended in the face of Doe’s heinous actions. As the film progresses, however, this attempt to protect common decency–namely,&nbsp;his partner’s pregnant wife– proves his ultimate undoing. The pessimist becomes the nihilist. Freeman plays the role with wounded&nbsp;wisdom, able to comprehend&nbsp;the severity of the killer’s plan but unable to stop it until it is too late. He serves as both participant and observer, a subdued performance that&nbsp;anchors the film’s cruel inclination.</div><br /><figure class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1361" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 1250px;"><img alt="The film's scattered poster." class="size-full wp-image-1361" src="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/seven-quad-poster.jpg" height="937" sizes="(max-width: 1250px) 100vw, 1250px" srcset="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/seven-quad-poster.jpg 1250w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/seven-quad-poster-300x225.jpg 300w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/seven-quad-poster-768x576.jpg 768w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/seven-quad-poster-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/seven-quad-poster-400x300.jpg 400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin: 36px auto 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="1250" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">The film’s chilling&nbsp;poster.</figcaption></figure><br /><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">Conversely, David Mills is the blissful fool. Boyish in nature and quick to dismiss any higher cause for serial killers, he proudly maintains&nbsp;a black-and-white approach to the world. Upon discovering Doe’s apartment, Mills defies his partner’s legal concerns and kicks the door down– justice doesn’t have time to wait for a warrant, and neither does he. Yet it is ultimately this exuberance towards catching the bad guy that not only clouds Mills’&nbsp;judgement (he fails to spot the disguised killer taking photos), but allows him to be exploited come the final act. Pitt, in his breakthrough role, pulses as the film’s misguided heart, an all-american who married his high school sweetheart (a sympathetic Gwyneth Paltrow) and fancies himself the hero.</div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">Fincher, of course, delights in tearing down this old-fashioned ideal with every darkened frame. Alongside cinematographer Darius Khondji, the director creates a city that, in the words of production designer Arthur Max, “reflects the moral decay of the people in it.” Anachronisms pop up across this urban cesspool, from typewriters to Somerset’s noirish trenchcoat and fedora, but it is the mood that truly stands as&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">SE7EN</em></strong>’s stylistic achievement. The unnamed locale (police badges simply read “Metropolitan”), constantly afflicted with rain and curiously surrounded by a desert, paints the film with grim nausea. Fincher had previously dabbled in this unease with his debut, but here, cramped into alleyways and deteriorating rooms, he codifies a signature look.</div><br /><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_940" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em auto; max-width: 100%; width: 723px;"><img alt="Somerset and Mills playing John Doe's game." class="size-full wp-image-940" src="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/still-of-brad-pitt-and-morgan-freeman-in-se7en-1995-large-picture-1.jpg" height="240" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin: 36px auto 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">Somerset and Mills playing John Doe’s game.</figcaption></figure><br /><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">The film’s lone action sequence, a lengthy chase, benefits from purging further into this filth. Stumbling through hotels and moving traffic, the director thwarts any desires to “look cool” through ugly frames, jagged editing, and a flubbed pursuit that ends with a gun pointed at Mills’ head– one of the film’s few close-ups. Parallels can be drawn between the scene and Ridley Scott’s rainy closer in<b><i>&nbsp;Blade Runner</i></b>&nbsp;(1982), but with the detective inexplicably spared, the scene takes on a more sinister edge. From this moment onward, Mills is on borrowed time; ignorant until the purpose for his preservation comes to light. Exhilarating chase scenes rarely carry such an ominous catch.</div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">The film’s only respite from the darkness arrives, ironically, in the darkest act. Doe leads the detectives out of the city under the guise he reveal his final two victims. Tensely scored and splashed against the harsh sunlight, it is a delivery truck that breaks the standoff. The delivery, of course, is a box with the head of Mills’ wife, unbeknownst to the cop but informed of her pregnancy by the “envious” killer. Walker’s punchline, frantically cut between hand-held shots of Mills and static compositions of Doe, is that the killer is his own final victim. Despite Somerset’s pleading, the wrathful Mills willfully loses by shooting Doe down–six bullets for the seventh deadly sin. Doe’s “masterpiece” is complete.</div><br /><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_944" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em auto; max-width: 100%; width: 723px;"><img alt="seven-ending-pitt-freeman-spacey-1" class="wp-image-944 size-full" src="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/seven-ending-pitt-freeman-spacey-1-1.jpg" height="240" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: block; height: auto; margin: 36px auto 0px; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: center;">“People will barely be able to comprehend it, but they won’t be able to deny it.”</figcaption></figure><br /><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">Evil wins.</div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;">New Line was apprehensive about such a downtrodden ending, but Fincher and Pitt refused to budge, knowing it was vital to the film’s power. It wound up making stars of both men. As for its placement in David Fincher’s film noir canon,&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">SE7EN&nbsp;</em></strong>remains his magnum opus. Return trips to the genre with <b><i>Zodiac</i></b>&nbsp;(2007) and&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><i>Gone Girl</i></span></strong>&nbsp;(2014) are brilliant in scope and similarly bleak, but the perverse potency of&nbsp;<strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">SE7EN</em></strong>&nbsp;is undeniable. It’s a cinematic sledgehammer. “I like characters who don’t change, who don’t learn from their mistakes,” Fincher once shared, and with David Mills, the director found his ultimate example. The officer is still in the back of that cop car, struggling to decipher&nbsp;when Evil gained the upper hand.&nbsp;</div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzXR_RYZzGYkkn__reaTIcvZbCUa-IFsbJ00cPe1Qq2AG5RpZ2nk7U3izf6rrX0seQ-mFJoElBgrSY' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0' /></div><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><br /></strong></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">TRIVIA:</strong>&nbsp;Denzel Washington was originally in talks to play Mills, but he felt the story was too “dark and evil.” He later regretted his decision upon seeing the film.</span></div><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><div style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em;"></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/9xQCa3hej1g" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>1http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/08/se7en-1995.htmlRed Rock West (1993)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/eYco5TkDMq0/red-rock-west-1993.htmlDennis HopperJ.T. WalshJohn DahlLaura Flynn Boyleneo-noirNicolas Cagesteve.eifert@gmail.comSat, 25 Jun 2016 10:42:46 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-3898986576043144062<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qZxcb3bIPvw/V2zmS8YeHjI/AAAAAAAAD_A/4MW79ai59sI9t9t9jUosOcfKm1lJNGZ5ACKgB/s1600/red_rock_west_xlg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qZxcb3bIPvw/V2zmS8YeHjI/AAAAAAAAD_A/4MW79ai59sI9t9t9jUosOcfKm1lJNGZ5ACKgB/s400/red_rock_west_xlg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption">The film's stylishly stenciled promotional poster.</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Red Rock is one of pulp fiction’s many purgatories. It’s a dusty breeding ground for local losers, insufferable seediness, and the almighty motive of money, which trumps love no matter where one originally hails. Men and women prattle on as if torn from the pages of an old paperback, while any attempts to leave are typically met with a scoff and a silver pistol against a worn face. It’s a thoroughly unpleasant place to visit, but a brilliantly taut canvas to view, especially in the hands of astute writer/director <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/21053-john-dahl">John Dahl</a>. Having previously dabbled in the crime genre through </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">KILL ME AGAIN</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(1989), the Montana native delivers </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">RED ROCK WEST</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(1993), a country noir crispier than corn-on-the-cob.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After being rejected by an oil rigging gig in Wyoming, denim-pleated drifter Michael Williams (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2963-nicolas-cage">Nicolas Cage</a>) quite literally finds himself at a crossroads. Broke as an unfunny joke and searching for some quick cash, he takes an exit off of Thieves’ Highway and ends up in Red Rock. While there, he bumps into Wayne Brown (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/22131-j-t-walsh">J.T. Walsh</a>), a local bartender with a money wad and the desire to exterminate his adulterous wife Suzanne (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6684-lara-flynn-boyle">Lara Flynn Boyle</a>). Mistaken as the hitman assigned to the job, Williams plays along and pockets the payment, opting to warn the unlucky spouse on his way out of town. An immediate attraction between the two holds things up, however, as Suzanne offers Williams more money to kill Wayne instead.</span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32bac3f-816b-279a-d248-09f3188e900d"></span> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32bac3f-816b-279a-d248-09f3188e900d"></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32bac3f-816b-279a-d248-09f3188e900d"></span> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32bac3f-816b-279a-d248-09f3188e900d"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These sleazy motives comprise the bulk of </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">RED ROCK WEST</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and co-writers John and Rick Dahl delight in making them as over-the-top as possible. Plot conveniences play out as rotten motifs within the picture, right down to Williams’ unlucky encounters with a manslaughter charge and actual hitman “Lyle from Dallas” (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2778-dennis-hopper">Dennis Hopper</a>). The latter exchange is a particularly suspenseful standout, as our hero slowly realizes he hitched a ride with the very man he profited from impersonating. The odds of this occurring in real life are unworthy of a crap table shoot, though the Dahl brothers quickly prove that what </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">would</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> happen is far and away less exciting than what </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">could</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> happen; and script their pulpy yarn accordingly.</span></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32bac3f-816b-279a-d248-09f3188e900d"></span> <br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this regard, </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">West</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> captures much of what made </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2011/08/blood-simple-1984.html#!">BLOOD SIMPLE</a></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> such a delight in 1984, right down to the random fate and honky tonk atmosphere. But where Joel &amp; Ethan Coen’s debut concerned itself with the cruelty of Murphy’s Law, John &amp; Rick Dahl expose the black humor that such logic expels on a pathetic bunch. Not coincidently, the film is more fun to rewatch than </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SIMPLE</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, if for the simple fact that the characters involved feel just as exasperated with their actions as we do.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32bac3f-816b-279a-d248-09f3188e900d"><br /></span> <span id="docs-internal-guid-e32bac3f-816b-279a-d248-09f3188e900d"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Williams, the limping Texan who instigated this whole mess, finds an ideal vessel in the form of Nicolas Cage. A few years away from superstardom with </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LEAVING LAS VEGAS</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1995) and </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE ROCK</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1996), the actor provides one of his most subdued performances to date. Granted, there are still plenty of Cage-isms to satisfy hardcore fans (highway push ups, anyone?), but for the most part, he portrays Williams as a man constantly forced to fit others’ perceptions for survival. To Wayne, he’s a cold blooded killer, to Lyle, a former marine, and to Suzanne, a duplicitous lover - each true, and each truly misleading.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tyPJoz46WjI/V2zmuONLE8I/AAAAAAAAD_Q/_vqEkYluinIPDOsNcgrOWcEoi1AmKM0kwCKgB/s1600/red-rock-west-1993-nic-cage-dennis-hopper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="355" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tyPJoz46WjI/V2zmuONLE8I/AAAAAAAAD_Q/_vqEkYluinIPDOsNcgrOWcEoi1AmKM0kwCKgB/s640/red-rock-west-1993-nic-cage-dennis-hopper.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption">Williams and Lyle shooting the uneasy breeze.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The supporting trio also approach this duplicity from differing angles. Walsh, all bark and no bite while struggling to make sense of his corrupted consequences, comes closest to Dahl’s version of a sympathetic loser. Boyle, on the other hand, puts on her best Gene Tierney facade and maintains a cucumber cool even when she and Williams are held captive at gunpoint. In fact, the only character upfront about his intentions is Hopper’s Lyle, who pulls out a Frank Booth villain with sadistic glee to spare. Favorites of director David Lynch, the latter performers are given a great deal to run with, and make every conniving moment count.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fittingly, Lynch’s lingering touch serves as the film’s other stylistic influence. Aside from the casting of multiple Lynch performers (Cage included), Dahl inflicts his hick town with the same snowglobe trappings that permeated </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TWIN PEAKS</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> only a few years prior. In fact, the Red Rock sign that comes to serve as a running gag bears more than a passing resemblance to the show’s own “Welcome to Twin Peaks” signpost. But to the director’s credit, these similarities arrive as superficial at best, segregated by a commitment to tradition that has never been Lynch’s central focus. Sleazy barrooms and Marc Reshovsky’s rugged cinematography instead evokes a world where westerns and noir are honored in equal measure, building-up to a sinister cemetery showdown.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iEh2t4rlwm0/V2zm5yiDBxI/AAAAAAAAD_Q/LGse_JWiZaoRMcRERWf5fzFPCJKMtzMjgCKgB/s1600/rrwsign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iEh2t4rlwm0/V2zm5yiDBxI/AAAAAAAAD_Q/LGse_JWiZaoRMcRERWf5fzFPCJKMtzMjgCKgB/s640/rrwsign.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption">"Adios, Red Rock."</td></tr></tbody></table><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wrapped in decadent blues, Dahl’s night time resolution is utterly exciting. True motives are revealed, Hopper’s wacko gets to take center stage while wielding a gun, and Williams is (literally) left holding the bag while boarding a train headed west. Before there is even time catch a breath, Williams scatters the money bag along the tracks, at long last surrendering to the irony of his entire experience. Dahl pulls a clever trick in this final moment, coinciding the character’s monetary abandon with his long overdue exit from Red Rock - implying a hurdle that only took a few dead bodies and a bullet to fully overcome.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Released as the second entry in Dahl's noir trio, </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">RED ROCK WEST</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> has also come to play second fiddle to successor project </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2012/05/last-seduction-1994.html#!">THE LAST SEDUCTION</a></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(1994). And while, admittedly, the steamy lead turn from Linda Fiorentino is worth raving over, </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SEDUCTION</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> pales in comparison to this picture’s rich aesthetic; where character, mood, and plot come together in crackling harmony. Dahl’s interpolation as a crime connoisseur has never been more concise, nor has his penchant for emphasizing the style’s devious sense of fate. Red Rock is not a desirable stop, but for the casual passersby, this detour comes to stand as one of the hidden gems of 90s film noir. </span><br /><span style="color: red; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rqlGO7rYhwY" width="420"></iframe><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32bac3f-816b-279a-d248-09f3188e900d"></span> <span id="docs-internal-guid-e32bac3f-816b-279a-d248-09f3188e900d"></span><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TRIVIA:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Hopper was originally touted for the role of Wayne Brown, though the veteran actor did some slick talking and nabbed the role that was rightfully his.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot;; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Written by Danilo Castro on his blog <a href="http://filmnoirarchive.com/search/label/Red%20Rock%20West%20%281993%29">Film Noir Archive</a></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/eYco5TkDMq0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>1http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/06/red-rock-west-1993.htmlInherent Vice (2014)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/gl3Svy5Fojo/inherent-vice-2014.htmlneo-noirPaul Thomas Andersonsteve.eifert@gmail.comMon, 23 May 2016 10:57:35 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-7367522348193843778<h4><span style="background-color: white;">This week's guest writer is Danilo Castro. &nbsp;His outstanding blog is <a href="http://www.filmnoirarchive.com/search/label/Inherent%20Vice%20%282014%29">Film Noir Archive</a>. &nbsp;This was previously published on that site. &nbsp;</span></h4><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">P</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">aul Thomas Anderson isn’t a filmmaker who shies away from cinematic extremes. From the all inclusive porn industry of </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BOOGIE NIGHTS</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1997) to the oil-fueled hell of </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THERE WILL BE BLOOD </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(2007), the San Fernando native has stuck to his guns as a man with an offbeat plan. And rarely has his vision, or anyone else’s for that matter, resulted in a mystery as hazily thought provoking as 2014’s </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">INHERENT VICE</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Evoking the off kilter shades of films noir past, this kaleidoscope of clues and quips is many things at once: a druggy comedy, a nostalgic love letter, and the most wickedly confusing case this side of </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2005/10/big-sleep-1946-101005.html">THE BIG SLEEP</a></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1946). Inebriation isn’t really necessary before viewing, this film gets you there all on it’s own.</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-804f4e5d-1ca3-b68a-b6ac-5bf74b406327" style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Things start off familiar enough for docile P.I. Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix). With an ex-old lady (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUdRiKtXZoM" style="text-decoration: none;">Katherine Waterston</a>) waltzing through his flimsy door and a plea that he find her current squeeze (Eric Roberts), we are firmly grounded in noir 101. That is, until one of the director’s trademark single camera moves escort us outside into the pastel-ridden 70’s of Gordita Beach, California. The freewheeling streets aren’t drenched in slicked rain, nor the dark shadows that typically come complete with a detective starter kit.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead, things are sullen, peaceful, and led by a guy who looks like he blazes it up with Cheech &amp; Chong in his off hours - all before the title credits hit the screen. Welcome to the path less taken; here’s your complimentary pair of sandals. Gordita Beach, the fictional brainchild of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPB6GXG7Wa8" style="text-decoration: none;">Anderson</a> and Thomas Pynchon, will be assuming the Shamus Flats mantle of Noirville for the next two and a half hours. And what the area lacks in healthy environments, it more than makes up for in fanatical cults and politically corrupt encounters. Any problems, and you can slip it into the complaint box of the novel’s author, Pynchon.</span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jv9MRYWc5Aw/VYhe4Tgq-KI/AAAAAAAABkU/tTwtGW-HRFs/s1600/inherentvicenewbannerlarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jv9MRYWc5Aw/VYhe4Tgq-KI/AAAAAAAABkU/tTwtGW-HRFs/s640/inherentvicenewbannerlarge.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.4px;"><span style="background-color: white;">The film's attention grabbing promotional poster</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The famously seclusive writer, best known for books like </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">V.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1963) and </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MASON &amp; DIXON</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1997), effortlessly infuses his dialogue and dense layering into the pulp genre; a style which he had previously never touched. The phrase “never touched” also applies to the relationship between his work and the failed film adaptations that have piled up over the years; with Pynchon's stories proving far too daunting for Hollywood to attempt. This affliction extended as far as Anderson himself, who had previously dropped the ball on adapting the author’s 1990 story </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VINELAND</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. But by the time shooting had begun on </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE MASTER</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in 2012, the determined auteur fired through several drafts of </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VICE</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> before finally nailing the target.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At a thickly 384 pages, Anderson couldn’t exactly pull a John Huston and shoot the novel verbatim, but his (slightly) abbreviated narrative achieves the ideal balance between page and screen. Lifting the best Chandleresque bits from the novel and sprinkling in his own rooted California obsession (referencing landmarks like Chavez Ravine and Bunker Hill), Anderson’s ambitious adaptation is an utter success. This is the kind of movie that a book can be proud of. Thomas Pynchon clearly echoed such a sentiment, as the camera shy scribe sneaks in a well hidden cameo… somewhere. Let me know if you find him.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dialogue wise, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">VICE</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> playfully ping-pongs between biting noir-isms (Sortilége’s pixie narration) and things that are a little tougher to categorize (The Chick Planet exchange). Regardless of what side of the table these conversations fall on, they offer a trippy take on noir’s typical machine gun delivery - you know, just to switch things up. Mix in a collection of hippie insults, nose picking, and frozen bananas, and what we’ve got is a mystery that stretches the limits of its audiences’ deduction span. Just when it seems as if the conversation has completely flown off the rails, a snide remark or casual name drop suddenly forces the plot back on track. It’d be irritating if not for the fact that every superfluous discussion adds immensely to the characters (and I </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mean</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> characters) that tumble through Anderson’s revolving door. It’s nowhere near traditional, but in all honesty, that ship sailed long ago.</span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I0jBTr0iRIM/VYhebGZfcSI/AAAAAAAABkM/8kUDpiOB1L0/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I0jBTr0iRIM/VYhebGZfcSI/AAAAAAAABkM/8kUDpiOB1L0/s640/4.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.4px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Anderson on the set</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div dir="ltr" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This desire to shake things up also extends to the film’s aesthetic choices. Loosening his technical virtuosity ever so slightly, P.T.A. has a blast through restless <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3dP5NkTrCU" style="color: #cc0000; text-decoration: none;">camera</a> movement and mood shifts that perfectly sync up with the story's plot swings. Gone are the self-conscious cools of his debut </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/04/hard-eight-1996.html?q=HARD+EIGHT">HARD EIGHT</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(1996), and in it’s place stands a filmmaker whose confidence in each imperfect choice is contagious. There’s a kinship between the director and his P.I. protagonist, as if each scene was composed with the scattered clarity of Sportello’s insight; complete with a buttery warm color palette that looks like this thing was filmed and forgotten about in 1970. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cinematographer Robert Elswit (whose other noir credits includes </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE TOWN</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NIGHTCRAWLER</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) does an exemplary job bouncing from one mood to another through a rendezvous with Coy (Owen Wilson) or the lovesick poetry of Doc and Shasta running in the rain. These scenes, as silly as they seem on the surface, house a bevy of beauty that isn’t regularly frequented by gutbucket crime drama, and often results in moments that transcend the style altogether. That’s not to say that Anderson skimps out on the noir heavy visuals, which gets just representation in the neon of Doc’s bungalow or the great Golden Fang sequence. In short, <span style="font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.4px;">VICE </span>is packed with so many gorgeous tones and references that it would explode if not for the cloud of bong smoke that keeps the gears churning. There's also a great James Wong Howe joke scattered in here somewhere. You know it's a noir party when Low Key Howe gets named dropped directly.</span><br /><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--ufaqlTLNlo/ViyA63yvfwI/AAAAAAAACyQ/FBLmfPZK6MQ/s1600/enter-vice-movie-review-4-mct.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--ufaqlTLNlo/ViyA63yvfwI/AAAAAAAACyQ/FBLmfPZK6MQ/s400/enter-vice-movie-review-4-mct.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.4px;"><span style="background-color: white;">"Doc may not be a do-gooder but he's done good."</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nderson rips another page from </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE BIG SLEEP</span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> rule book and fills his lengthy cast with the most entertaining personalities he could dig up. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kioM6J-FjRI" style="text-decoration: none;">Jena Malone</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZNGxcTySVw" style="text-decoration: none;">Martin Short</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZXHoz6Fo18" style="text-decoration: none;">Hong Chau</a> all pop up for scene stealing quickies, while crucial roles are filled with equal precision by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIAHsIdK7m0" style="text-decoration: none;">Maya Rudolph</a> (while mom Minnie Riperton plays in the background), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWrhL4h3RYQ" style="text-decoration: none;">Benicio del Toro</a>, and Reese Witherspoon. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FbHaPvZgsY" style="text-decoration: none;">Phoenix</a> is bewildered perfection in the eye of the storm, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6UCBUaNCn0" style="text-decoration: none;">Josh Brolin</a> a behemoth with tears on the inside, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKbQVjIa7iE" style="text-decoration: none;">Wilson</a> a man born to hold (not play) a saxophone. It’s definitely a lot to have thrown at the viewer, but the high wire structure of this character farce provides the perfect vehicle for such an exceptional <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqQ_7CpU-_g" style="text-decoration: none;">collection of oddballs</a>. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">INHERENT VICE</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a film that, despite all it’s bold stylings and artsy tangents, remains firmly steeped in the past. It follows the unwritten rule of an eccentric detective movie every other decade, following in the footsteps of </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/07/restoration-of-kiss-me-deadly-1955.html?q=KISS+ME+DEADLY">KISS ME DEADLY</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1955), </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2013/11/the-long-goodbye-1973.html?q=THE+LONG+GOODBYE">THE LONG GOODBYE</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1973), and </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE BIG LEBOWSKI </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(1998). It challenges conventional structures along with all that other pretentious stuff people love to throw around when a movie colors outside the lines. It’s psychedelic, it’s poignant, it’s noir. So just go along for the ride and don’t let your confusion get the best of you. To quote Doc, “Don’t worry. Thinking comes later.” </span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wZfs22E7JmI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wZfs22E7JmI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TRIVIA: </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anderson initially considered Robert Downey, Jr. for the role of Doc, but ultimately chose to go with Phoenix, whom he had previously worked with in </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">THE MASTER</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/gl3Svy5Fojo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>0http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/05/inherent-vice-2014.htmlLaura (1944)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/804m11WVqVw/laura-1944.htmlDana AndrewsGene TierneyOtto PremingerVincent Pricesteve.eifert@gmail.comMon, 16 May 2016 05:36:33 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-4360557216868733485<div class="Standard"><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;"><b>LAURA – Sight vs. Sound</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ceUKTmEyE9g/Vzm8Vl0dkuI/AAAAAAAAXas/MyeGAv0a-t4C4Dc3ULbIAGJHLcoM34jggCLcB/s1600/laura%2B1944%2Bbrit%2Bcard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ceUKTmEyE9g/Vzm8Vl0dkuI/AAAAAAAAXas/MyeGAv0a-t4C4Dc3ULbIAGJHLcoM34jggCLcB/s320/laura%2B1944%2Bbrit%2Bcard.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">Film shows us. Radio tells us. During network radio's heyday, several programs featured adaptations of the latest movies (and, sometimes, older films). The earliest of these programs was Lux Radio Theater (1934 – 1955) followed by Screen Guild Theater (1939 - 1951), variously name depending on its sponsor. Other shows were Academy Award Theater (1946), Hollywood Star Time (1946 – 1947), Ford Theater (1947 – 1949), and Screen Director's Playhouse (1949 – 1951). </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">A number of the movies we now call film noir were adapted for radio. The majority of the broadcast adaptations featured the film's original stars, but occasionally different actors were brought in for the radio program. Most of the adaptations were broadcast once, although certain titles were redone with new casts and scripts.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/834-otto-preminger">Otto Preminger</a>'s 1944 film <i>Laura</i> received four different radio adaptations in five different broadcasts. Each of the radio productions retains certain aspects of the film and each differs from the film in certain respects.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">A 50 - minute Lux Theater production of February 5, 1945, featured <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/13578-dana-andrews">Dana Andrews</a>, <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/20124-gene-tierney">Gene Tierney</a>, and <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1905-vincent-price">Vincent Price</a> recreating their film roles, with <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4071-otto-kruger">Otto Kruger</a> as Lydecker. (Kruger would later portray the role in the 1948 Broadway production of with K.T. Stevens and Hugh Marlowe. An earlier staging on&nbsp;</span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Laura</i><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">&nbsp;had toured on the road with Kruger, Tom Neal (of <i>Detou</i>r fame), and Miriam Hopkins as Laura.) On August 20, 1945, the Screen Guild Theater presented a 25 - minute abridgment with Andrews, Tierney, and Clifton Webb recreating his performance as Lydecker. David Bruce plays Carpenter. November 11, 1946, saw another 25 - minute broadcast by Hollywood Star Time with Tierney, Webb, and William Eythe as McPherson. A 50 - minute Ford Theater broadcast May 30, 1948, featured Virginia Gilmore (married to Yul Brynner at the time) as Laura, John Larkin (radio's Perry Mason) as McPherson, and Ivor Francis as Lydecker. In 1954 Lux Theater did a new production of&nbsp;</span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Laura</i><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">&nbsp;with&nbsp;Tierney and Victor Mature as McPherson, using the same script from 1945. Character actor Joseph Kerns, best known to a certain generation as 'Mr. Wilson' on the <i>Dennis the Menace</i> television show, was 'Paul' Lydecker.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">The film begins with Lydecker's voice-over, “I shall never forget the weekend Laura died.” Guest host <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/17753-lionel-barrymore">Lionel Barrymore</a> introduces the Lux Theater version, setting the scene at the apartment of 'Paul' Lydecker. (Where's Waldo?) The Screen Guild version opens with McPherson stating, “Murder is murder and a dame's a dame.” He then introduces us to Lydecker. Lydecker's opening sentence from the film starts the Hollywood Star Time broadcast. In the Ford version McPherson, at his police station narrates the story, as he files a report on the Laura Hunt murder.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">Besides calling Waldo “Paul,” the Lux version changes Laura's aunt (Ann Treadwell) into her cousin. Her character disappears in the Screen Guild broadcast. Bessie, the maid, is introduced differently in each version. The Lux version can not call a “corpse” a “corpse”; Lydecker is cut off by other dialog from saying the word in the Screen Guild broadcast. Yet, a year later the word became acceptable to say.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">In the film, the Hollywood Star Time and Ford versions Laura finds Diane Redfern's dress. In the Lux performance McPherson's deduction that leads to the dress being discovered. Bessie finds the dress in the Screen Guild adaptation.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">David Raksin's “Laura” theme is not heard in the Lux broadcast, but is heard in the other presentations, although Alfred Newman is credited with the music for the Hollywood Star Time broadcast. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">Let's take a closer look at two scenes.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">In the film, as McPherson finishes his questioning of Laura after her return he asks her if she plans to marry Shelby. Preminger films them from the side, medium shot from the chest up. When Laura says she will not marrying Shelby a quick half smile appears on his right profile. He then says, “I'll see you in the morning.” He exits.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J3Q9kps_08M/Vzm7lp-vCpI/AAAAAAAAXac/9ZJgTw98Wpkhd_o52aCHRyyg415xMTK6gCKgB/s1600/laura1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J3Q9kps_08M/Vzm7lp-vCpI/AAAAAAAAXac/9ZJgTw98Wpkhd_o52aCHRyyg415xMTK6gCKgB/s320/laura1.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">The Lux presentation has McPherson, after Laura's answer, say cheerily as he exits, “Well, I'll be seeing you in the morning, Miss Hunt.” The audience laughs, as they do again at McPherson's response in the Screen Guild version, “All Right. Swell,”. In the Hollywood Star Time version he says “Smart girl.” There is no reaction from the The Ford Theater audience. Right after the scene finishes McPherson gives a short speech about how happy he is that Laura is not marrying Shelby. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">The final sequence of the film, starts with Lydecker's return to Laura's apartment after McPherson has left . We see the door of the kitchen open. Lydecker enters and opens a tall antique clock to get the shotgun he had hidden there. Laura, in her bedroom, combs her hair, turns on the radio to listen to Waldo's radio program. Cut to Waldo as he loads the gun with two shells. McPherson, in front of the building, talks to another detective before they reenter the building. Laura is at her dressing table as Waldo enters her room and remains there until the broadcast ends. He says, “And that's way it is, isn't it Laura?” She, startled, turns to face him and says in a close-up, “Waldo, you've taken one life. Isn't that enough?” “The best part of myself, that's what you are,” he responds, and derides the “vulgar pawing of a second-rate detective.” The three cops arrive at the front door. Back to a medium close-up of Waldo as he says the police will find them together. Laura jumps up, pushing the gun towards the ceiling and a shot goes off into the ceiling. McPherson bursts through the service door. He enters the living room as Laura rushes to him. We see a cop fire his gun. The film cuts back to Waldo getting hit and firing the another shot as he falls. Laura cry out as Waldo says, “Good-bye, Laura.” Close-up of the now shattered clock face. “Good-bye, my love.” Waldo dies. The scene's time: four minutes.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YvLluSgeRgY/Vzm7lQd9CuI/AAAAAAAAXaU/pqH1NA7La6QVXFsP01GRZ6QeNHAQrt9gwCLcB/s1600/laura2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YvLluSgeRgY/Vzm7lQd9CuI/AAAAAAAAXaU/pqH1NA7La6QVXFsP01GRZ6QeNHAQrt9gwCLcB/s320/laura2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kk-ez4IXEVA/Vzm7lnzcLFI/AAAAAAAAXaY/yIswGr8y3rw32TcQV3lsats6Il8GtbWRwCLcB/s1600/laura3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kk-ez4IXEVA/Vzm7lnzcLFI/AAAAAAAAXaY/yIswGr8y3rw32TcQV3lsats6Il8GtbWRwCLcB/s320/laura3.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NuCWgoZ7fWI/Vzm7l_7E0ZI/AAAAAAAAXag/awy9bFWVQEIR-F72XGjfExETNoDHchSPACLcB/s1600/laura4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NuCWgoZ7fWI/Vzm7l_7E0ZI/AAAAAAAAXag/awy9bFWVQEIR-F72XGjfExETNoDHchSPACLcB/s320/laura4.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lPgcBcpUxYI/Vzm7mO2ESyI/AAAAAAAAXak/TtarIs-hijMFYYDvcpRppRPmZ8RCUSmAgCLcB/s1600/laura5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lPgcBcpUxYI/Vzm7mO2ESyI/AAAAAAAAXak/TtarIs-hijMFYYDvcpRppRPmZ8RCUSmAgCLcB/s320/laura5.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">The Lux Theater version begins with Waldo's broadcast. Waldo, as he enters Laura's room, recites the same lines from the poem he is reading on his program. Then he says, “And that's the way it is.” He turns off the radio and continues, “There is a final irony. As much as I detest melodrama, here I am with a gun in my hand.” After the lines about vulgar pawing, he says, “I'm not going to lose you, Laura... Don't move, Laura. They will find us together.” We hear the police bang on the door. McPherson calls Laura's name. Waldo says, “Turn your face, darling, turn your face.” Glass breaks. A cop enters and shoots Waldo. The cop, who got in through the fire escape, lets McPherson into the room. McPherson berates himself for being a bad detective. As Waldo dies he says, “Laura, good-bye. Good-bye, my love,”. McPherson says to Laura, “It's all right, darling. A bad dream is over.” The scene's time: two minutes.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">The Screen Guild version has Laura tell Waldo that she and McPherson are going on a dinner date. At Laura's apartment McPherson hides behind a screen. The door buzzer sounds. Waldo enters. After being told McPherson is not there he says, “I must conclude this business before he arrives.” He opens the clock, pulls out the shotgun, while explaining everything he is doing. “A gun, a shotgun!,” Laura exclaims. McPherson steps out from behind the screen. He commands Lydecker to drop the gun or he'll let him have it. Waldo, surrenders and congratulates Laura, telling her he hopes she'll be happy in Brooklyn or the Bronx, buying at credit establishments and having a disgustingly earthy relationship.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />“<span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">Very well, lieutenant. Shall we go?” Waldo gets the last word. The scene's time: two minutes.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">In the Hollywood Star Time version, Lydecker says that he has heard that Laura and McPherson have found the gun and, with McPherson gone, he knows what to do, explaining that he has gone through the servant's entrance to get to the gun from the clock. (Dramatic Alfred Newman music.) The door opens, Laura screams and Waldo fires the gun. Laura screams again. Waldo says, “You won't make me miss twice.” McPherson enters, shots are exchanged and we hear a body drop. Lydecker quotes a line of poetry, then says “Good-bye, my dear. Forgive me, Laura, but I loved you.” Laura responds, “I'm sorry, Waldo. I accept your apology. Come Mark, let's go.” The scene's time: two minutes.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">On the Ford program the “Laura” theme is heard while McPherson talks to the cops out front. Realizing that Waldo has not left the building, McPherson deduces that Waldo has entered Laura's apartment through the back door. McPherson tells us Waldo has developed a murderous, maniacal gleam in his eye, as Waldo goes to the clock, gets the gun and loads it. Laura hears the click of the gun and calls out, asking who is there. Waldo laughs, well, maniacally, and speaks the “vulgar pawing” lines. Laura screams. McPherson and Laura call out to each other as shots are exchanged. As Waldo lies near death, he says, “I'm dying. Rather clumsy of me, isn't it? Murder has always been my favorite crime. Thank you for everything, my dear. Good-bye, my dear.” We return to McPherson's report, when Laura interrupts, asking Mark if he has forgotten something. Oh, yes, a three-week leave of absence for a honeymoon with the new Mrs. McPherson. The scene's time: five minutes.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">(Vera Caspary's 1942 stage adaptation of&nbsp;</span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Laura</i><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">, written with George Sklar, has Lydecker arrested&nbsp;after being shot in the hand. In the novel, Lydecker is killed by the police.)</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">Interestingly, the film of&nbsp;</span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Laura</i><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">, despite its tale of murder and the neuroses displayed by several&nbsp;characters, maintains a civilized air. Laura, a cool and collected lady, keeps her wits about her even with a shotgun pointing in her face. Waldo maintains a calm, if suppressed, air even while pointing a shotgun in Laura's face. Yet, the two later radio adaptations play up Laura's helplessness and Waldo's mania.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">The same story. Two media. Five ways to tell that story. Yet, despite the interesting and sometimes effective radio adaptations,&nbsp;</span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Laura</i><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">&nbsp;is better seen and heard than just heard.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">The radio broadcasts mention in this article are all available on the internet.</span></div></div><div class="Standard"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><br /></span></div><div class="Standard"><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;">Written by Foster Grimm</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="360" width="640"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="wmode" value="direct" /><param name="movie" value="http://cvp1.cdn.turner.com/xslo/cvp/assets/container/2.5.6.1/cvp_embed_container.swf?site=tcm&profile=8&context=embed&contentId=980423" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><embed src="http://cvp1.cdn.turner.com/xslo/cvp/assets/container/2.5.6.1/cvp_embed_container.swf?site=tcm&profile=8&context=embed&contentId=980423" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" bgcolor="#000000" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="640" wmode="direct" height="360"></embed></object></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/804m11WVqVw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>0noLAURA – Sight vs. Sound Film shows us. Radio tells us. During network radio's heyday, several programs featured adaptations of the latest movies (and, sometimes, older films). The earliest of these programs was Lux Radio Theater (1934 – 1955) followed by steve.eifert@gmail.comLAURA – Sight vs. Sound Film shows us. Radio tells us. During network radio's heyday, several programs featured adaptations of the latest movies (and, sometimes, older films). The earliest of these programs was Lux Radio Theater (1934 – 1955) followed by Screen Guild Theater (1939 - 1951), variously name depending on its sponsor. Other shows were Academy Award Theater (1946), Hollywood Star Time (1946 – 1947), Ford Theater (1947 – 1949), and Screen Director's Playhouse (1949 – 1951). A number of the movies we now call film noir were adapted for radio. The majority of the broadcast adaptations featured the film's original stars, but occasionally different actors were brought in for the radio program. Most of the adaptations were broadcast once, although certain titles were redone with new casts and scripts. Otto Preminger's 1944 film Laura received four different radio adaptations in five different broadcasts. Each of the radio productions retains certain aspects of the film and each differs from the film in certain respects. A 50 - minute Lux Theater production of February 5, 1945, featured Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, and Vincent Price recreating their film roles, with Otto Kruger as Lydecker. (Kruger would later portray the role in the 1948 Broadway production of with K.T. Stevens and Hugh Marlowe. An earlier staging on&nbsp;Laura&nbsp;had toured on the road with Kruger, Tom Neal (of Detour fame), and Miriam Hopkins as Laura.) On August 20, 1945, the Screen Guild Theater presented a 25 - minute abridgment with Andrews, Tierney, and Clifton Webb recreating his performance as Lydecker. David Bruce plays Carpenter. November 11, 1946, saw another 25 - minute broadcast by Hollywood Star Time with Tierney, Webb, and William Eythe as McPherson. A 50 - minute Ford Theater broadcast May 30, 1948, featured Virginia Gilmore (married to Yul Brynner at the time) as Laura, John Larkin (radio's Perry Mason) as McPherson, and Ivor Francis as Lydecker. In 1954 Lux Theater did a new production of&nbsp;Laura&nbsp;with&nbsp;Tierney and Victor Mature as McPherson, using the same script from 1945. Character actor Joseph Kerns, best known to a certain generation as 'Mr. Wilson' on the Dennis the Menace television show, was 'Paul' Lydecker. The film begins with Lydecker's voice-over, “I shall never forget the weekend Laura died.” Guest host Lionel Barrymore introduces the Lux Theater version, setting the scene at the apartment of 'Paul' Lydecker. (Where's Waldo?) The Screen Guild version opens with McPherson stating, “Murder is murder and a dame's a dame.” He then introduces us to Lydecker. Lydecker's opening sentence from the film starts the Hollywood Star Time broadcast. In the Ford version McPherson, at his police station narrates the story, as he files a report on the Laura Hunt murder. Besides calling Waldo “Paul,” the Lux version changes Laura's aunt (Ann Treadwell) into her cousin. Her character disappears in the Screen Guild broadcast. Bessie, the maid, is introduced differently in each version. The Lux version can not call a “corpse” a “corpse”; Lydecker is cut off by other dialog from saying the word in the Screen Guild broadcast. Yet, a year later the word became acceptable to say. In the film, the Hollywood Star Time and Ford versions Laura finds Diane Redfern's dress. In the Lux performance McPherson's deduction that leads to the dress being discovered. Bessie finds the dress in the Screen Guild adaptation. David Raksin's “Laura” theme is not heard in the Lux broadcast, but is heard in the other presentations, although Alfred Newman is credited with the music for the Hollywood Star Time broadcast. Let's take a closer look at two scenes. In the film, as McPherson finishes his questioning of Laura after her return he asks her if she plans to marry Shelby. Preminger films them from the side, medium shot from the chest up. When Laura says she will not marrying Shelby a quick half smile appears on his right profile. He then says, “I'll see yfilm,noir,neo,noir,humphrey,bogart,robert,mitchum,filmmakers,classic,film,old,movies,movie,trailershttp://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/05/laura-1944.htmlhttp://cvp1.cdn.turner.com/xslo/cvp/assets/container/2.5.6.1/cvp_embed_container.swf?site=tcm&profile=8&context=embed&contentId=980423Woman on the Run (1950)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/sJT1Dhsaw2c/woman-on-run-1950.htmlAnn SheridanDennis O'KeefeRobert Keithsteve.eifert@gmail.comTue, 03 May 2016 20:26:12 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-6532332794989027213<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AEXB0pC7K4w/VyjigbLGqjI/AAAAAAAAXQw/iwN3lyaheZg3-NJ8_CffFfo5zpt3mkoLACLcB/s1600/13162326_1703185236620599_745950351_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" href="http://www.flickeralley.com/detectives-and-damesa-flicker-alley-noir-blog-a-thon/" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AEXB0pC7K4w/VyjigbLGqjI/AAAAAAAAXQw/iwN3lyaheZg3-NJ8_CffFfo5zpt3mkoLACLcB/s640/13162326_1703185236620599_745950351_n.png" width="640" /></a></div><i><br /></i><i>This article is part of <a href="http://www.flickeralley.com/detectives-and-damesa-flicker-alley-noir-blog-a-thon/">Flicker Alley's blogathon</a> for their new releases of Woman on the Run and Too Late for Tears</i><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kRFlGWZFPZE/VyeNXvtJ09I/AAAAAAAAXQI/d1VzARIkZRYMb0m1hMVdZu_ebUD13H-0wCLcB/s1600/0-woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kRFlGWZFPZE/VyeNXvtJ09I/AAAAAAAAXQI/d1VzARIkZRYMb0m1hMVdZu_ebUD13H-0wCLcB/s400/0-woman.jpg" width="321" /></a></div>It's been a long time since Film Noir of the Week first discussed <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2005/05/woman-on-run-1950.html#!">Woman on the Run</a></i>. &nbsp;At the time the film was just put out on a public domain DVD label. &nbsp;Through the haze and scratchy audio it was clear that the film is just excellent.<br /><br />The highly enjoyable crime film and sometimes travelogue of 40s San Francisco is irresistible. &nbsp;True, most remember <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/80994-ann-sheridan">Ann Sheridan</a> shedding her glamorous persona or the dogged cop stuck with the dog (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/46711-robert-keith">Robert Keith</a>).<br /><br />But what I've really grown to appreciate is <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/88462-dennis-o-keefe">Dennis O'Keefe</a>. &nbsp;He plays a machine-gun talking reporter rat-tat-tatting his lines as he tails Sheridan. <br /><br />O'Keefe was from a show biz family. &nbsp;His parents were a duo in a vaudeville act that would frequently travel to Los Angeles. &nbsp;By the time O'Keefe was 16 the experienced vaudevillian himself was writing for the "Our Gang" series -- penning scripts or just coming up with gags. &nbsp;When not writing, he was an extra and even a sometimes stunt man in countless films -- including a bit part in The Marx Brothers <i>Duck Soup </i>at the age of 25. &nbsp;But he struggled to make a success of himself.<br /><br />Legend has it, Clark Gable noticed the young extra while making <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/45800-saratoga">Saratoga</a></i> and ordered a screen test. &nbsp;By 1938, the bit-part actor was now in credited roles and would enjoy a healthy career in film in front of the camera.<br /><br />But O'Keefe probably would have been just fine as a writer. &nbsp;The 1938 film <i>The Kid Comes Back</i> writer Don Miller in <b>"B" Movies: An Informal Survey of the American Low-Budget Film 1933-1945</b> called the movie<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"fast, funny, studiously avoided the formula cliches peculiar to films around prize fights... the story, by the way, is by E.J. Flanagan, who at the time was a struggling bit player. &nbsp;Flanagan hit the jackpot later... when he became Dennis O'Keefe." &nbsp;</blockquote>Just as O'Keefe was making a name as an actor.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/8SprXv0yBNrJYsHRmP2kSDUkDzG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/8SprXv0yBNrJYsHRmP2kSDUkDzG.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />According to his 1968 obituary in the NY Times, O'Keefe never stopped writing during his acting days. &nbsp;While playing the lead in the great <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/07/t-men-1947.html#!">T-Men</a></i>, he worked on the script with <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/52589-john-c-higgins">John C. Higgins</a>. <br /><br />It's not surprising that none of his writing for Our Gang, <i>The Kid Comes Back</i> and <i>T-Men</i> are noted on his IMDB page. &nbsp;He, like so many other jack-of-all-trades, did every job in the business but is only really remembered today for his work in front of the camera.<br /><br />His acting was worth remembering, though. &nbsp;His notable films in the film noir world include <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/28438-the-leopard-man">The Leopard Man</a></i>, <i>T-Men</i>, <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/09/raw-deal-1948.html?q=Raw+Deal">Raw Deal</a></i>, <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/27544-the-company-she-keeps">The Company She Keeps</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/06/abandoned-1949.html?q=Raw+Deal">Abandoned</a></i>. &nbsp;But you'd be crazy to forget his comedic roles in <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/43489-brewster-s-millions">Brewster's Millions</a></i>, <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/252376-the-affairs-of-jimmy-valentine">The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine</a></i> and <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/44875-topper-returns">Topper Returns</a></i>.<br /><br />I really enjoy him in <i>Woman on the Run</i>. &nbsp;Check out the way O'Keefe pronounces "Po-leece" during a chat in Chinatown, or his crack about a female cop tailing them "Say, did you get a load of that female impersonator following you?"<br /><br />I'm convinced that O'Keefe had a hand in polishing his lines in <i>Woman on the Run</i>. &nbsp;He may be second banana in the film, but he certainly holds his own.<br /><br />I'm excited to mention that <a href="http://www.flickeralley.com/">Flicker Alley</a> is putting out the restored version of <i>Woman on the Run</i> out later this month, along with a noir that might be even better...&nbsp;<i>Too Late for Tears</i>! &nbsp;Check out the Flicker Alley noir blogathon <a href="http://www.flickeralley.com/detectives-and-damesa-flicker-alley-noir-blog-a-thon/">here</a>.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/159271594" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe> <a href="https://vimeo.com/159271594">WOMAN ON THE RUN Trailer</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/flickeralley">Flicker Alley</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N-OTQVl5COU/VyeN6V2XArI/AAAAAAAAXQM/Y6KU8uOeoQ0athlUimETP4GhgPcusICDgCLcB/s1600/Woman%2Bon%2Bthe%2BRun%2B1950%2Bstill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N-OTQVl5COU/VyeN6V2XArI/AAAAAAAAXQM/Y6KU8uOeoQ0athlUimETP4GhgPcusICDgCLcB/s320/Woman%2Bon%2Bthe%2BRun%2B1950%2Bstill.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/sJT1Dhsaw2c" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>0http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/05/woman-on-run-1950.htmlHard Eight (1996)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/4IRzW__M1iA/hard-eight-1996.htmlJohn C. Reillyneo-noirPaul Thomas AndersonPhilip Baker HallSamuel L. Jacksonsteve.eifert@gmail.comTue, 26 Apr 2016 07:53:14 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-2644649199443327099One of the most frustrating things with doing a film noir blog are experts coming out of all dark corners to tell me "that's not film noir."<br /><br />It got so infuriating I took a break from doing the blog. &nbsp;To be clear, this is a film noir website but I'm not guaranteeing that all films written about are noir. &nbsp;In fact, I leave it up to viewers to decide. &nbsp;But don't email me or (worse) leave a nasty comment if you think we're wrong. &nbsp;It doesn't matter. &nbsp;What matters is what you think -- not having a pure list online for movie nerds.<br /><br />I remember seeing the Robert Mitchum starrer&nbsp;<i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/44098-undercurrent">Undercurrent</a> </i>(1946) and being extremely disappointed. &nbsp;After I piped in on Facebook that I couldn't stand it, <a href="http://sunsetgun.typepad.com/">Kim Morgan</a>&nbsp;mentioned that it was probably because I was seeing it through a film noir lens, instead of appreciating it for what it was. &nbsp;And she was right. &nbsp;<i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/851-brief-encounter">Brief Encounter</a></i> (1946) is another. &nbsp;I read over and over how great a film noir it was. &nbsp;Well, I saw it and found it not to be a noir, but instead a brilliantly heartbreaking film. &nbsp;So I'm glad I took the chance.<br /><br />It's one thing for individuals to not understand noir, but even Google can't get film noir right:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Film Noir: a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. The term was originally applied (by a group of French critics) to American thriller or detective films made in the period 1944–54 and to the work of directors such as Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, and Billy Wilder.<br />a film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace.<br />plural noun: films noirs</blockquote><br />Where to begin? &nbsp;It's mostly agreed upon that film noir began in 1941 with <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/09/maltese-falcon-1941.html#!">The Maltese Falcon</a></i> and ended in 1958 with <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2010/05/touch-of-evil-1958.html#!">Touch of Evil</a></i>. &nbsp;But how about <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/11/strangers-on-third-floor-1940.html">Stranger on the Third Floor</a> </i>(1940) or <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2006/10/odds-against-tomorrow-1959.html">Odds Against Tomorrow</a></i> (1959)? &nbsp;And did Hollywood big shots just decide to stop making noirs in the late 50s? &nbsp;No, they continued and evolved to keep up with more modern movie making. &nbsp;Hell, noir from the 40s and 50s are very different (I prefer the 40s look and style). <br /><br />I would guess the key phrase in the Google blurb "originally termed" gives Google an out and not have to actually define what film noir means now.<br /><br />Even Google's plural "films noirs" is something I've never read outside of Google. &nbsp;"Film noirs" or "films noir" even, maybe. &nbsp;Who knows? &nbsp;Or should it be "Whos knows"?<br /><br />What can you do if our Google robot overlords have facts wrong, or at the very least highly misleading, when every yahoo that asks "What's film noir" into their phone and gets this answer? &nbsp;Is Google slowly re-writing history or are we just bending mindlessly to what our phones tell us?<br /><br />With all that said, I recommend if you want to really get noir then get the following books:<br /><br /><b>Dark City The Film Noir</b> by Spencer Selby (1984)<br />Film Noir: An encyclopedic reference to the American Style (3rd edition). 3rd edition or earlier if you can't find the 3rd. Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward<br /><br /><b>Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir </b>by Eddie Muller<br /><br /><b>Film Noir: A Panorama of American Film Noir</b> Translated from French. Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumenton.<br /><b><br /></b><b>Devil Thumbs a Ride and Other Unforgettable Films</b> by Barry Gifford<br /><br />Use the first two to track what films you've seen at what you haven't. Panorama of Film noir: Read that book cover to cover. As you work your way through as many of the films listed in the first two books, use Muller and Giffords books to fill in any gaps or to get more of a history of the films. Congratulations. You now know what film noir is.<br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iqQaiapoVQ8/Vx98_JiNO0I/AAAAAAAAXPY/NclfuATVMFoa5tlVdm4w2agmM5hyOv7KACLcB/s1600/hakfVFPn5k7bcuMzy9GyFJR1xcM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iqQaiapoVQ8/Vx98_JiNO0I/AAAAAAAAXPY/NclfuATVMFoa5tlVdm4w2agmM5hyOv7KACLcB/s400/hakfVFPn5k7bcuMzy9GyFJR1xcM.jpg" width="267" /></a>Moving on to this week's Noir, I highly recommend you revisit <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4762-paul-thomas-anderson">Paul Thomas Anderson</a>'s early work, <i>Hard Eight</i>.<br /><br />It's a beautifully gritty film with three fantastic performances.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4492-philip-baker-hall">Philip Baker Hall</a> anchors it all as a world weary gambler who mentors a young man on his last legs (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4764-john-c-reilly">John C. Reilly</a>). &nbsp;<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2231-samuel-l-jackson">Samuel L. Jackson</a> is a reptilian thug. &nbsp;All three knock it out of the park with fantastic performances. &nbsp;Anderson smartly lets them use their strengths -- their engaging real-life personalities-- in their roles. &nbsp;Most of the film is a talky tale. &nbsp;Normally I'd call out a film for telling not showing, but man these actors are just so good it doesn't matter.<br /><br />Locations also play a major part of the film. &nbsp;Empty diners along the highway. &nbsp;Shitty cars still running from the 80s. &nbsp;Casinos with frayed carpets and generic hotel rooms. &nbsp;Sleezy motels just outside the casino strips doing a shoddy job reminding folks that most gamblers aren't high rollers but losers just throwing money away and trying to get laid. &nbsp;It's a film that comes across today as a period piece. &nbsp;So much has changed since then it's almost unreal how simple things seemed.<br /><br />Anderson would go on to give us some of the greatest films of the past 20 years since then, and even hit us with an even greater film noir with <i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/171274-inherent-vice">Inherent Vice</a></i> which folks will say isn't noir (see above). <br /><br />Mercifully neither <i>Hard Eight</i> or <i>Inherent Vice</i> have smart phones.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rggtzgTDx1Q/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rggtzgTDx1Q?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><br /><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/4IRzW__M1iA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>9http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/04/hard-eight-1996.htmlAngel Heart (1987)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/-WhrXH6d23g/angel-heart-1987.htmlAlan ParkerCharlotte RamplingMickey Rourkeneo-noirRobert De Nirosteve.eifert@gmail.comSun, 24 Jan 2016 09:51:28 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-1408398468502930423<blockquote class="tr_bq">"Steam rolls up from the manholes suggesting Hell below. &nbsp;A cat yowls (everyone remembers stories or films with cats as familiars)... The camera then tracks to a pile of garbage, where we see the corpse of a man lying in a pool of blood. &nbsp;And throughout the sequence, a cacophony of sound contributes to a Dante-esque illusion of damned souls in Hell."<br />From the essay <i>The Devil You Know: Satanism in Angel Heart</i> by Carrol Fry.</blockquote><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xyMoXjH7yo0/VqUNKffTwdI/AAAAAAAAWw0/FpJq-FodZcM/s1600/angel%2Bheart%2Bposter%2B1987.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xyMoXjH7yo0/VqUNKffTwdI/AAAAAAAAWw0/FpJq-FodZcM/s640/angel%2Bheart%2Bposter%2B1987.jpg" width="406" /></a>That's how <i>Angel Heart </i>begins. &nbsp;Saxophonist Courtney Pine's 1920s sounding Girl of My Dreams drifting in as a stray dog stumbles upon the dead body. &nbsp;The song used as the theme for Harry Angel throughout the film.<br /><br />A blend of film noir and horror. &nbsp;It's beautifully shot with an opening that hooks any noir lover from the get-go.<br /><br />The film takes place in 1955 but it's closer to '45 maybe because of director <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/9168-alan-parker">Alan Parker</a>'s use of familiar film noir staples seen in old Bogart films. &nbsp;I especially like the unsuspecting private eye taking a case from a mysterious stranger. &nbsp;It's no wonder John Huston called it one of the best films ever made -- until it gets to the third act. I see so much of Huston's <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/11/john-huston-great-noir-director-part-1.html">Maltese Falcon</a></i> in <i>Angel Heart</i> -- including the elevator ride to Hell (also lifted in <i>The Grifters</i>.) <br /><br />The classic noir gumshoe is played by Rourke. &nbsp;Rourke, frustrated by fame and pressures, was already about ready to give up being a movie star. &nbsp;But, unlike some of his films around that time --and at least a decade to follow-- he's engaged and gives maybe his best performance in film. &nbsp;<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/44079-charlotte-rampling">Charlotte Rampling</a>&nbsp;-- her second neo-noir trip after starring with Mitchum in <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2013/11/farewell-my-lovely-1975.html">Farewell My Lovely</a></i> -- has a small but important part. &nbsp;She got the role after being recommended by Rourke. &nbsp;They were looking for a sexy, exotic eccentric. &nbsp;A perfect role for Rampling. &nbsp;Unfortunately her part is cut short.<br /><br />Where the film falters, as Huston noted, is in New Orleans when wooden,but sexy <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/3232-lisa-bonet">Lisa Bonet</a> is introduced. &nbsp;Folks may remember the film was originally rated X due to some enthusiastic humping that wouldn't be uncommon on HBO now. &nbsp;Unfairly compared to the similarly-themed <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/09/chinatown-1974.html">Chinatown</a></i> and the X rating, the film was only a blip at the box office. &nbsp;However, it has survived the test of time being fondly remembered as one of the most successful and unique noir hybrid of the period. &nbsp;I can just imagine the CGI comic-book style it'd look like if they made it today.<br /><br /><i>Angel Heart </i>is a treat if you like dank. Harry is constantly walking into traps and cages while the soundtrack looms as if telling Harry there's no escape anyway. &nbsp;The sultry soundtrack was by Trevor Jones -- includes a excellent Cajun piece by Dr. John (ZuZu Man in the credits) that you can't find anywhere.<br /><br /><i>Angel Heart </i>is pure cinema that still holds up -- a worthy neo-noir and successor to Val Lewton's horrors <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/02/cat-people-1942.html">Cat People</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2005/10/seventh-victim-1943-101705.html">The 7th Victim</a></i>. &nbsp;Rourke channels Garfield and Bogie while <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/380-robert-de-niro">Robert De Niro</a> hams it up with his long fingernails and intense stare. &nbsp;But best of all is the direction, sets and look of this outstanding effort.<br /><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Vp0LXxkx7yA/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vp0LXxkx7yA?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br />Written by Steve-O</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/-WhrXH6d23g" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>1http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/01/angel-heart-1987.htmlReign of Terror (aka The Black Book 1949)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/XSLcgMMDHRU/reign-of-terror-aka-black-book-1949.htmlAnthony MannArlene DahlCharles McGrawEagle-Lion FilmsJohn AltonPhilip YordanRichard BasehartRobert Cummingswalter wagnerWilliam Cameron Menziessteve.eifert@gmail.comMon, 18 Jan 2016 10:32:21 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-7872098428318563696<blockquote class="tr_bq">“Anarchy, misery, murder, arson, fear. These are the weapons of dictatorship. The grab for power is on."</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GHiRe1aLrQk/Vp0vJ4F9f6I/AAAAAAAAWwE/NkxZunCrzzI/s1600/the%2Bblack%2Bbook%2B1949%2Breign%2Bof%2Bterror.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GHiRe1aLrQk/Vp0vJ4F9f6I/AAAAAAAAWwE/NkxZunCrzzI/s640/the%2Bblack%2Bbook%2B1949%2Breign%2Bof%2Bterror.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>That's France on July 26, 1794. And throw in torture, backstabbing intrigue, treachery, romance with a possible femme fatale, night, wry dialogue, and a high speed carriage chase. It's <i>The Black Book</i> or <i>Reign of Terror</i> a 1949 historical noir directed by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/40199-anthony-mann">Anthony Mann</a>, photographed by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/96252-john-alton">John Alton</a>, script contributions by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/85453-philip-yordan">Philip Yordan</a> and production design overseen by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/11489-william-cameron-menzies">William Cameron Menzies</a>.<br /><br />Producer <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/7646-walter-wanger">Walter Wanger</a>, no stranger to noir (<i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2005/12/scarlet-street-1945-12052005.html">Scarlet Street</a></i>,&nbsp;<i><a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/72544-the-lost-moment">The Lost Moment</a></i>), originally planned a big-budget historical drama called "The Bastille", but because of cost overruns from <i>Joan of Arc</i>, then in post-production, and budget troubles at studio Eagle Lion, he downsized the film to an action picture. Screenwriter Æneas MacKenzie, after researching the period of the French revolution, had come up with an historically accurate script. But Wanger also wanted a script of “cheating cheaters that pictures of this type have had...with lots of devices and a good deal of suspense – and loaded with gags.” Yordan was brought in to punch up the script, now retitled <i>Reign of Terror</i>, to become “a relentless blend of film noir and gangster film conventions that equate the heroes with the villains at every turn.” The film is a mixture of violence (two characters are shot in the face in close-up) and humor (after one of the shootings, a character remarks, “Paris. Never a dull moment.”) <br /><br />Eagle Lion's hot combo of Anthony Mann and John Alton, just off the success of <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/07/t-men-1947.html">T-Men</a></i>, were brought aboard. Menzies agreed to produce, as Wanger was busy with <i>Joan of Arc</i>, a film Wanger believed would be his <i>Gone With the Wind</i>.) <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/7125-robert-cummings">Robert Cummings</a> was cast as hero Charles D'Aubigny; starlet <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/44881-arlene-dahl">Arlene Dahl</a> as Madelon (Charle's former love); <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5403-richard-basehart">Richard Basehart</a> as Robespierre; Richard Hart as Barras; Jess Barker as Robespierre's enforcer Saint Just; <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/8233-charles-mcgraw">Charles McGraw</a> as the muscle for St. Just and Robespierre; and, stealing the acting honors, <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/15676-arnold-moss">Arnold Moss</a> as Fouche, the head of the secret police. Beulah Bondi and Norman Lloyd have important roles. Noir stalwarts William Challee, John Doucette, Dabbs Greer,Victor Kilian, Dan Seymour, and Russ Tamblyn all have small roles. <br /><br />Mann and Alton shot the film in twenty-eight days during the summer of 1948, using Menzies' decoration on sets reused from <i>Joan of Arc</i>. Mann's distinctive tough style and Alton's inventive camera work create a world of shadows heightening the paranoia and tension.<br /><br />The plot outline is thus. Robespierre wants to become dictator of France. Barras and his party oppose him. Robespierre black book lists his enemies, most of whom have, or will, end up on the guillotine. Robespierre claims that the book is lost. All hell breaks loose.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z2BIwh4yVvs/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z2BIwh4yVvs?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><br />1947 saw the first of HUAC's investigations of Communist influence of the movie industry. Is <i>Reign of Terror</i> an attack on HUAC? Wanger was a Hollywood liberal, albeit a timid one at this time. Is the black book a metaphor for the blacklist? One script direction says Robespierre is “screaming like Hitler.” Or is Robespierre a stand in for Communism? Robespierre announces that God is dead in the new France. He talks of the will of the people, a proletariat mob of which he is the vanguard. In the shooting script, a scene, either not shot or cut from the film, depicts Charles and Madelon discussing what to do if Robespierre succeeds. Why not go to America? “There they'd have a chance to build a new life free from fear.” America “sounds big and strong.” The political point can play either way, as in Wanger's later film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. <br /><br /><i>Reign of Terror</i> sat on the shelf until the middle of 1949. It was released with an added prologue (quoted at the beginning of this article), where in England it was called <i>The Black Book</i>, a name that stuck for later showings. It was one of the few Eagle Lion pictures to make money and Wanger's only picture in the late 40s to show a profit. <br /><br />Home video lovers can rejoice that <i>The Black Book</i>, as it is called on the package, has just been released by Sony on its “Columbia Classics” MOD label. The print makes Alton's cinematography glow. After years of terrible PD versions on DVD, the new Sony edition is what noir fans have been waiting for. As Fouche says to Charles and Madelon, who are rekindling the fire of their mutual attraction, “There's a revolution going on. Don't stay out late.” Stay up late for <i>The Black Book</i>. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XWxQx0ut4Fg/Vp0vLxBOwJI/AAAAAAAAWwM/VCYU2QLaEvQ/s1600/the%2Bblack%2Bbook%2B1949.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XWxQx0ut4Fg/Vp0vLxBOwJI/AAAAAAAAWwM/VCYU2QLaEvQ/s400/the%2Bblack%2Bbook%2B1949.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Foster Grimm <br /><br />References: J. Hoberman “An Army of Phantoms” Matthew Bernstein “Walter Wanger Hollywood Independent” Shooting script – Alexander Street Press <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/XSLcgMMDHRU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>2http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2016/01/reign-of-terror-aka-black-book-1949.htmlRage in Heaven (1941)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/1GrWLzPESlQ/rage-in-heaven-1941.htmlGeorge SandersIngrid BergmanMGMRobert MontgomeryW.S. Van Dykesteve.eifert@gmail.comMon, 18 Jan 2016 10:35:51 PSTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-8772999419466763791<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0fc62YTxUFM/Vp0wfkJ5dqI/AAAAAAAAWwY/MUTti-QpWQo/s1600/Rage%2Bin%2BHeaven%2Bmovie%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0fc62YTxUFM/Vp0wfkJ5dqI/AAAAAAAAWwY/MUTti-QpWQo/s400/Rage%2Bin%2BHeaven%2Bmovie%2Bposter.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>Producer David O. Selznick once said of <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/4111">Ingrid Bergman</a>: “She had an extraordinary quality of purity and nobility and a definite star personality that is very rare.”<br /><br />We couldn’t agree more. <br /><br />One of the reasons I love classic film is the extensive number of “deep tracks”– those little hidden gems waiting to be discovered and shared. Alright, so maybe not all deep tracks are “gems”, but it’s still loads of fun to discover new-to-me movies. A few years ago during a <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/19406">Robert Montgomery</a> marathon on Turner Classic Movies, I managed to catch the strange psychological thriller <i>Rage in Heaven</i>. Released by MGM in 1941, and directed by <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/32427-w-s-van-dyke">W.S. “One-Take Woody” Van Dyke</a>, <i>Rage in Heaven</i> stars Montgomery, the charming George Sanders, and a young, delightfully fresh-faced Ingrid Bergman. Discovered by David O. Selznick after seeing her performance in the Swedish film <i>Intermezzo</i> (1936), Bergman was immediately signed to a contract. She made her Hollywood debut in 1939 with the remake <i>Intermezzo: A Love Story</i>, co-starring Leslie Howard. Bergman instantly won the affections of American moviegoers. And although her iconic role in the romantic classic <i>Casablanca</i> was three years away, Bergman quickly established herself as a Hollywood mainstay. <br /><br />In the film, Robert Montgomery is Philip Monrell, heir to a British steel magnate. He’s also completely insane. After escaping a mental institution in France, Philip reunites with his best friend, or more accurately his best “frenemy”, Ward Andrews (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/3361">George Sanders</a>). Ward is unaware of Philip’s mental illness and led to believe that Philip has been on holiday in “the wilds of Africa” (imagine that line in Sanders’ distinctive voice, paired with an endearing “old boy” for good measure). The two friends travel to Philip’s home to visit his mother, who has been very ill. While her son was away, Mrs. Monrell (Lucile Watson) employed Stella Bergen (Ingrid Bergman) to act as a secretary and companion. Upon their arrival to the Monrell estate, Philip and Ward are greeted by the luminous Stella. Both men are immediately struck by her beauty and innocence. There is an instant connection between Ward and Stella, causing Philip’s deeply rooted jealousy of Ward to slowly rear its head. <br /><br />Phillip (Robert Montgomery) enjoys having Stella (Ingrid Bergman) and Ward (George Sanders) over for dinner and mind games. While Ward is called away for work, Philip aggressively courts Stella in an attempt to win her affections, and ultimately her hand in marriage. Although he succeeds in both, Philip’s growing paranoia that Ward will take Stella away from him begins to manifest into full-blown psychotic obsession. Once Ward returns to England, Philip concocts a series of elaborate situations where Ward and Stella are alone, in an attempt to catch them in an adulterous act. All of Ward and Stella’s interactions are entirely innocent, but Philip’s psychosis seriously impedes his judgment. Obviously. His perpetual mistrust torments Stella, and she seeks comfort with Ward. This only fuels Philip’s neurotic belief that Stella has been unfaithful from the start. Philip’s obsession reaches a disturbing climax, and Ward and Stella fear for their love of one another…and their lives. <br /><br /><i>Rage in Heaven</i> isn’t a top-tier film, but I place some of the blame on the confinements of the Production Code, low budget, and troubled production. Although the story suffers, the performances from Montgomery, Bergman, and Sanders make up for the inadequacies. According to the esteemed <a href="http://sunsetgun.typepad.com/sunsetgun/">Kim Morgan at Sunset Gun</a>, Montgomery unintentionally gives a brilliantly nuanced performance as the psychotic Philip Monrell: <br /><br />Reportedly, Montgomery didn’t want to make the movie, he wanted a break or vacation from his MGM contract but was forced into the role. In retaliation he delivered his lines as flat as possible within this super melodramatic milieu. Well, his angry decision worked, and he’s just so strange that we utterly believe this millionaire is a suicidal madman, one step away from the loony bin he left at the beginning of the movie. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />George Sanders is superb as the kind-hearted Ward Andrews. Known more for playing a cad in films like <i>Rebecca</i> and <i>All About Eve</i>, Sanders is delightful as romantic lead. Ingrid Bergman’s seemingly effortless and natural acting style, which we all know and love, was apparent even in those early performances. Although their pairing seems odd, Bergman and Sanders make a wonderful on-screen couple. They would come together again 13 years later in Roberto Rossellini’s <i>Journey to Italy</i> (<i>Viaggio In Italia</i>) in 1954, which was during Bergman’s exile period from Hollywood. She would gloriously return in 1956 in Litvak’s <i>Anastasia</i>, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Take that, you disgusting finger-pointers and gossip hounds! <br /><br /><i>Rage in Heaven</i> is available through Warner Archive and nice addition to your home library, if only to round out your “George Sanders as a lover” film collection. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dww98mZlIXG9tmXwvC6ziwGo42gOMXu7LLdeJW68eEz5nGeSS4tAd6H7yKt_rEzu9_bf0hC2PccTA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Written by Jill Blake<br />Her excellent blog is <a href="http://theblackmaria.org/2014/08/29/a-crazy-love-triangle-in-rage-in-heaven/">BlackMaria</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/1GrWLzPESlQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>7http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2014/09/rage-in-heaven-1941.htmlDance with a Stranger (1985)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/NxQsmSneOu8/dance-with-stranger-1985.htmlDiana DorsJ. Lee ThompsonMike NewellMiranda Richardsonneo-noirRupert Everettsteve.eifert@gmail.comMon, 01 Sep 2014 11:46:09 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-9171413293307648454<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kqz70ZjLq3c/VAS3wELTyeI/AAAAAAAAUPo/0eukVSmBYNQ/s1600/dance-with-a-stranger-movie-poster-1985-1020203622.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kqz70ZjLq3c/VAS3wELTyeI/AAAAAAAAUPo/0eukVSmBYNQ/s1600/dance-with-a-stranger-movie-poster-1985-1020203622.jpg" height="400" width="268" /></a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq">"This thing haunts and, so far as I may say it, disgusts me as something obscene," Raymond Chandler wrote. "I am not referring to the trial, of course, but to the medieval savagery of the law . . . I have been tormented for a week at the idea that a highly civilized people should put a rope round the neck of Ruth Ellis and drop her through a trap and break her neck. This was a crime of passion under considerable provocation. No other country in the world would hang this woman." </blockquote><br />Chandler wrote this while working in London in 1955, just before the hanging of Ruth Ellis. The nightclub hostess Ellis shot her lover David Blakely outside the Magdala pub in South Hill Park, Hampstead on Easter Sunday 1955. With shocking speed, she was executed at Holloway only three months later, aged 28. Ellis became the last woman in Britain to be hanged. <br /><br />The story leading up to the murder was documented in a film, <i>Dance with a Stranger</i> in 1985. The film is part noir, part docudrama. It's a star-making turn for the leads <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/8436-miranda-richardson">Miranda Richardson</a> and <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/4757-rupert-everett">Rupert Everett</a>. It's one of <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/10723">Mike Newell</a>'s first film, and it's a knock out. <br /><br />Not a noir in structure, but instead it borrows film noir visuals. Characters can be seen walking out of the shadows. Moody and atmospheric images -- subdued lighting and almost surreal colors-- helps tell the grim tale. The main character Ellis is often shown via mirror reflections. <br /><br />Whenever Richardson is on the screen it's hard not to stare at her. Her presence, beauty and physical acting as the obsessive b-girl is something to behold. <br /><br />The film doesn't get into the most controversial part of the whole story-- the speedy trial and execution brought about possibly because of the unforgiving social class system. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5pn7zxSf4ag/VAS4ZVcPr7I/AAAAAAAAUPw/pmyOSPmU4vI/s1600/yield%2Bto%2Bthe%2Bnight%2Bposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5pn7zxSf4ag/VAS4ZVcPr7I/AAAAAAAAUPw/pmyOSPmU4vI/s1600/yield%2Bto%2Bthe%2Bnight%2Bposter.jpg" height="320" width="215" /></a></div>Instead, you might want to see the <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/94156">Diana Dors</a> starrer <i><a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/movie/20806-yield-to-the-night">Yield to the Night</a>&nbsp;</i>released right around the time of the hanging. &nbsp;The film is more sanitized than <i>Dance with a Stranger</i> but quite good in it's own way. Dors, surprisingly, gives a strong performance playing a woman clearly based on Ellis. (The filmmakers at the time denied the movie is anyway connected with the true story in the headlines every day- which I don't believe for a second. It was penned by director <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/18669-j-lee-thompson">J. Lee Thompson</a>'s then wife Joan Henry who spent time in prison for receiving bad checks.) <i>Yield to the Night</i> (renamed -- and totally missing the point -- in the US as <i>Blonde Sinner</i>) tells the story of a young woman on death row after shooting her lovers wife on the street. The story is about how she deals with knowing the exact date she's going to die while serving her last days in a lonely prison.<br /><br />Trivia: The real-life Ruth Ellis while still a party girl appeared uncredited in a Diana Dors film <i>Lady Godiva Rides Again</i> five years previous to the film.<br /><br />Almost 60 years later, the execution of Ruth Ellis still fascinates. Numerous true-crime books have been written about Ellis, but no film has really captured the whole story. Luckily, the fantastic <i>Dance with a Stranger </i>and the better-than-normal Brit Noir <i>Yield to the Night </i>are a good place to start.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dway8zAxRUuzDkXxd7l8eU6MaNMJTzwJke6yzl3JCEIgy3KUAkOBJqOiqn2Nz5Obw66952oDGgwNZE' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0' /></div><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/NxQsmSneOu8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>4http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2014/09/dance-with-stranger-1985.htmlHell's Half Acre (1954)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/Boon4omLqFY/hells-half-acre-1954.htmlElsa LanchesterEvelyn KeyesJohn H. AuerJohn L. RussellKeye LukeMarie WindsorNancy GatesSteve FisherWendell Coreysteve.eifert@gmail.comSun, 24 Aug 2014 17:36:01 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-4598733109057505308<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wBLv2BjdAHw/U_qAdkPRCyI/AAAAAAAAT-s/19n6xDfPMAo/s1600/hells%2Bhalf%2Bacre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wBLv2BjdAHw/U_qAdkPRCyI/AAAAAAAAT-s/19n6xDfPMAo/s1600/hells%2Bhalf%2Bacre.jpg" height="400" width="276" /></a></div>Film noir boundaries extend beyond the continental US to Hawaii in&nbsp;<i>Hell's Half Acre</i>, a noir entry seldom referenced but&nbsp;more than worthy of review. The film's atypical setting does nothing to defy the conventions of the genre, but rather confirms the adaptability of the sturdy noir narrative. Honolulu might be a tourist trap by day, but nocturnal activity plays out in night clubs, dance halls, flop houses and dark alleys. It’s a complicated urban network best approached with extreme caution.<br /><br />In terms of the main protagonist's inescapable connection with poor choices made in the past,&nbsp;<i>Hell's Half Acre</i>&nbsp;is among the&nbsp;best examples of noir existentialism. The story commences on a happy note, with Chet Chester (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/7683">Wendell Corey</a>) enjoying a night at his club with ladyfriend Sally Lee (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/18582">Nancy Gates</a>). The tone quickly changes, though, when Chester's shady background resurfaces in the form of his erstwhile syndicate associate Novak (Robert Costa), who plans to blackmail Chester. Lee puts an abrupt halt to the scheme with a well-placed bullet to Novak's forehead. Chester pragmatically thinks it best he takes the rap, so he sends Lee on an errand to hire an appropriate attorney for his defense. But the third and most violent member of the disbanded syndicate Roger Kong (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/95014">Philip Ahn</a>) suspects Lee is making off with syndicate money, so he roughs her up a little too much. Over in the states, Donna Williams (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/11494">Evelyn Keyes</a>) has a hunch her husband Randy, presumed killed in Pearl Harbor, is really alive in the form of Chester. She travels to Honolulu to learn the truth, with Lida O'Reilly (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/2926">Elsa Lanchester</a>) available as her tour guide. Williams proves to be both right and wrong about her husband. <br /><br />Wendell Corey (<i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2011/12/i-walk-alone-1948.html">I Walk Alone</a></i>&nbsp;[1948], <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/06/sorry-wrong-number-1948.html">Sorry, Wrong Number</a></i>&nbsp;[1948]) leaves a strong impression as Chester, a somber man bound to his criminal past, which, like his facial scar, stubbornly remains in the present. Chester seems to have concluded long ago there would be no going back to being Randy. He is a deserter turned racketeer, not a hero, like his 11-year-old son has been brought up to believe. Chester recognizes the futility in even considering going backwards when he explains to the boy's mother, "His father's dead. He died the day Chet Chester started to live..." This theme of the walking dead reaches its apex when Chester calmly notifies authorities of his impending murder. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XwEZkqo4fss/U_qAQhs4q_I/AAAAAAAAT-k/v5eyBzwL2v4/s1600/1_Hell's_Half.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XwEZkqo4fss/U_qAQhs4q_I/AAAAAAAAT-k/v5eyBzwL2v4/s1600/1_Hell's_Half.png" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Donna Williams (Evelyn Keyes) looks for the husband she lost in&nbsp;</span><i style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;">Hell's Half Acre</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />With location footage from Waikiki Beach to the A'ala district, the always interesting backdrop alternates between picturesque and austere. The peripheral characters who inhabit the more dismal locales are a seedy lot indeed. In a disquieting moment of grotesque sexuality, sweaty and unkempt Tubby Otis (Jesse White) surely would have raped Williams (inexplicably nude under a bed sheet!) were it not for the timely intervention of Chester. Then there is the presence of practiced noir dame <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/3340">Marie Windsor</a>, who always adds an element of raw sex with her statuesque physicality and tempting bedroom eyes. Law enforcement operates on a level commensurate with the local hoodlums; police chief Dan (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/16103">Keye Luke</a>) is just fine with using people as bait, like underworld information guy Ippy (Leonard Strong) and even Williams. An arch criminal's death by police gunfire in front of a sign that reads "Clean Up Hell's Half Acre" no doubt will frustrate liberal viewers. <br /><br /><i>Hell's Half Acre</i> reunites the creative force behind the prior year's excellent noir film <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/09/city-that-never-sleeps-1953.html">City That Never Sleeps</a></i> (1953): director and associate producer <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/95118">John H. Auer</a>, screenwriter <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/19408">Steve Fisher</a> (<i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2013/02/i-wake-up-screaming-1941.html">I Wake Up Screaming</a></i> [1941]), and cinematographer <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/7305">John L. Russell</a> (<i>Psycho</i> [1960]). <br /><br />Framed at the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37:1, the Blu-ray version available from Olive Films is true to their usual standards (great transfer, no extras).<br /><i><br /></i><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Editor's note: &nbsp;our friend&nbsp;Glenn Erickson--The DVD Savant <a href="http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s4146acre.html">disagrees</a>: "<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana;">Olive Films'</span><b>Blu-ray</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana;">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana;">of</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana;">&nbsp;</span><b style="font-family: verdana;">Hell's Half Acre</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana;">&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana;">is a good-looking transfer from materials that have clearly been stored well for the last 59 years. It's therefore a nagging frustration that whoever is responsible (Paramount? Viacom? Republic? Olive?) has transferred this widescreen picture flat. The main titles are a horizontal bar across the frame, with empty sky above and extraneous image below. Viewers with widescreen monitors capable of doing the cropping manually are advised to try the show out with a different scan.</span></span></i><br /><i style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i><i style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I have a feeling that these AR decisions are being made because a bean-counter executive's budgetary policy rules out making two separate transfers for most titles. We all know that the studios' only interest in library pictures is in making the sale. This is why I don't throw stones at the smaller companies. Until now Olive has performed remarkably well, with things like&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s3910body.html" style="color: black; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Invasion of the Body Snatchers</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s3949hell.html" style="color: black; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Private Hell 36</a>&nbsp;properly formatted. It's just too bad that favorites like&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s3926guit.html" style="color: black; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif;">Johnny Guitar</a>&nbsp;slip by, presented once again at the wrong Aspect Ratio."</span></i><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dP4LRxVwJWI" width="459"></iframe><i><br /></i></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Written by Eric Somer </span><br /><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Eric's blog is: <a href="http://filmnoirboard.blogspot.com/2014/06/hells-half-acre-1954.html">Film Noir Board</a></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/Boon4omLqFY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>1http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2014/08/hells-half-acre-1954.htmlForbidden (1949)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/_uv2Jgs0r3U/forbidden-1949.htmlBrit noirDouglass MontgomeryGeorge KingHazel CourtHone Glendinningsteve.eifert@gmail.comSun, 17 Aug 2014 14:22:20 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-1349605721980362476<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vafmM2L9c6Y/U_EQrnDkscI/AAAAAAAAT2c/3UgdZMUcZ9U/s1600/Forbidden%2B1949.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vafmM2L9c6Y/U_EQrnDkscI/AAAAAAAAT2c/3UgdZMUcZ9U/s1600/Forbidden%2B1949.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></div>Like fine wine and Guinness Stout, genre movies don’t always travel well. These would include a surprising number of cheapie British B-thrillers featuring - ironically - name Hollywood actors brought over to England in the 1940’s and ‘50’s to add box office allure both at home and abroad. <br /><br />Film stars such as George Raft, Dane Clark, Dennis O’Keefe, Alex Nichol, Dan Duryea, Arlene Dahl, Ginger Rogers, John Derek, Barbara Payton, Dana Wynter, and Jayne Mansfield all crossed to pond to star. Television had weakened their hold on audiences and the UK productions gave them opportunities to continue to feature and to earn an easy buck (in some cases, a much needed one). <br /><br />Unfortunately, their presence didn’t always make for better pictures. Too often it did more harm than good because it was obvious the stars were there just to be there. It also magnified the cultural uncertainty around these British productions. Already they were seen as imitative and tepid versions of American-style crime dramas. Adding token Hollywood involvement to the mix seemed only to underscore the notion that these productions were not the real thing. <br /><br />However, one movie actually much strengthened by the presence of an American actor was <i>Forbidden</i>&nbsp;(1948), a stylish and dark noir thriller starring <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/118802-douglass-montgomery">Douglass Montgomery</a>. <br /><br />Montgomery had starred in the early ‘30’s opposite actresses such as Joan Crawford and Katherine Hepburn but by the end of the decade was yesterday’s news. After serving four years in the Canadian army in WWll, he was no news at all. <br /><br />However, the good-looking and affable Montgomery was ideally cast as a scientist estranged from his work and unhappy husband living emotionally and sexually apart from his wife. That his character happened to be Canadian also served to reinforce his otherness. <br /><br />Jim Harding was once a promising research chemist but through circumstance now works as a patent medicine man peddling hair restorer on Blackpool’s Golden Mile funfair. It’s there he becomes attracted to Jeannie Thompson (<a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/101499-hazel-court">Hazel Court</a>) who spins candy floss at nearby stall. The two get together and begin an affair, without Jim revealing to Jeannie that in fact he’s married to Diana (Patricia Burke). <br /><br />While not exactly a femme fatale, Diana is one of the most venomous bitches in all of film noir. She’s a failed stage actress who persists in trying to get back on the boards, even if it means sleeping with anyone she hopes can help her get there. Meanwhile, she refuses to give Jim a divorce because he does still provide her some financial security however meagre. As she says, “Having a husband in the background at least gives me some choice”.<br /><br />Diana hears of Jim’s affair from a local spiv, Johnny (Kenneth Griffin who specialized in playing assorted lowlifes and weasels). Diana confronts Jeannie, tells her that Jim is married, and attempts to buy her off, calling Jeannie “a fairground slut” and saying, “Why don’t you stick to your own kind or don’t they pay enough?” <br /><br />When Jim finds out what Diana’s done, he decides that he’s had enough. Diana takes thyroid pills to control her weight and with his knowledge of chemistry, he figures he can increase the dosage enough to kill her without raising suspicion. Following through, he later finds her dead in their apartment and takes and buries her under the slate tiles of his factory lab. <br /><br />Harding is not necessarily a character we should like. He appears compromised at every turn and too complacent and often too ready to play the victim. And yet Montgomery persuades us to go along with Harding and to sympathize with him. Like Richard Basehart in <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2006/12/he-walked-by-night-1948.html">He Walked by Night</a></i> (1948), Montgomery takes a character from whom we’d maybe rather keep our distance and makes him compelling. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QMakohhp4q4/U_EUCn37tUI/AAAAAAAAT3A/fCy2FHzBSbE/s1600/vlcsnap-2014-08-17-16h42m34s218.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QMakohhp4q4/U_EUCn37tUI/AAAAAAAAT3A/fCy2FHzBSbE/s1600/vlcsnap-2014-08-17-16h42m34s218.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div><br />The two female leads, Hazel Court as Jeannie Thompson and Patricia Burke as Harding’s wife Diane provide a fascinating contrast. Court, an actress with doll-like radiance is a decent working class carny girl who knows her place. As she says, “I tried looking up over the fence once. Now I’m in me own back yard and it suits me fine”; Burke’s Diana on the other hand, is convinced her place is somewhere else but she’s really just ‘mutton dressed up as lamb’ and the only one who doesn’t know it is her. <br /><br /><i>Forbidden</i> happens mostly in the vicinity of the funfair, a natural gathering place for fast-buck artists, con men, grifters, and wide boys like Johnny and his gang. In film noir, the amusement park is a recurrent location and often seen to threaten more than amuse. <br /><br /><i>Forbidden</i>&nbsp;is an threatening film, told in flashback. It's directed expressively by <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/105801-george-king">George King</a> - <i>Crimes at the Dark House </i>(1940), <i>The Shop at Sly Corner</i> (1947) - and cinematographer <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/person/592569">Hone Glendinning</a>'s camerawork here is visceral. He also shot the titles <i>The Shop on Sly Corner</i>, <i>The Noose</i>, and <i>Shadow of the Past</i> (1950). <br /><br /><i>Forbidden</i> once considered a ‘lost’ noir is in commercial release as part of Odeon Entertainment’s ‘The Best of British Collection’.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dywdANJcQ7lVAznFYRMvavoIty23DsveulzggQRgH47MTZ3fnZYimmjcT5LPqkkrpPDGf5OOz9LHWs' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0' /></div><br /><br /><br />Written <a href="http://noirworthwatching.blogspot.ca/2014/07/forbidden-1948-like-fine-wine-and.html">by Gary Deane</a><br /><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/_uv2Jgs0r3U" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>0http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2014/08/forbidden-1949.htmlLauren Bacallhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/snCzXzKEzms/lauren-bacall.htmlsteve.eifert@gmail.comWed, 13 Aug 2014 10:06:19 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-6675405632594112542<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/i9Ay727EYzw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/LF_chuSy9G4/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/LF_chuSy9G4&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/LF_chuSy9G4&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/XS2VC1hfZ9E?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div>No words this week. &nbsp;I plan on watching <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2012/11/the-breaking-point-1950.html">To Have and Have Not</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2005/10/big-sleep-1946-101005.html">The Big Sleep</a></i> and <i>Key Largo</i> in one long dark night.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RDa5MzHGMgY/U-ua_NC6V8I/AAAAAAAATks/jXNdCBYSvr8/s1600/Bacall%2C%2BLauren%2B(Big%2BSleep%2C%2BThe)_02_DS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RDa5MzHGMgY/U-ua_NC6V8I/AAAAAAAATks/jXNdCBYSvr8/s1600/Bacall%2C%2BLauren%2B(Big%2BSleep%2C%2BThe)_02_DS.jpg" height="640" width="506" /></a></div><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/snCzXzKEzms" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>4http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2014/08/lauren-bacall.htmlThe Secret of Convict Lake (1951)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/6lLtZvSsGJ8/the-secret-of-convict-lake-1951.htmlAnn DvorakCyril CusackEthel BarrymoreGene TierneyGlenn FordJack LambertLeo ToverMichael GordonSol KaplanTwentieth Century-FoxwesternZachary Scottsteve.eifert@gmail.comSun, 03 Aug 2014 14:27:30 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-172246249900180537<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aEO-44bZyR4/U96hkK7LjZI/AAAAAAAATiA/_gfV8Eb3E-A/s1600/The+secret+of+convict+lake+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aEO-44bZyR4/U96hkK7LjZI/AAAAAAAATiA/_gfV8Eb3E-A/s1600/The+secret+of+convict+lake+poster.jpg" height="400" width="263" /></a>One of the joys of collecting and watching movies is that, from time to time, you chance upon a little neglected gem. Sure, there are the disappointments too but that’s more than balanced out by the buzz of seeing something previously unknown for the first time and liking it. <i>The Secret of Convict Lake</i> (1951) was a movie I’d never heard of before I acquired it. Anyway, I thought I’d give it a go for a number of reasons: the cast was great, the title was evocative, and the cover looked quite cool. Having seen it now, I have no regrets about this particular purchase and it’s a film I can see myself revisiting. It’s a compact little western with noirish undertones and good performances all round. <br /><br />Any western involving snow inevitably gets the thumbs up from me, and this one opens with a group of men fighting their way through a white, mountainous landscape. The voiceover informs us that we’re looking at six convicts (soon to be five as one freezes to death) who have broken out of prison and are trying to keep ahead of the pursuing posse. When a blizzard forces the hunters to abandon the chase, the remaining fugitives find themselves on a ridge overlooking a small settlement. After the hellish trek the collection of small dwellings with soft lights spilling from them look very inviting. A quick reconnaissance reveals that the only inhabitants are women, their men having yet to return from prospecting. Right away the conflict at the centre of the picture is before us: a bunch of frozen and half-starved criminals fresh out of prison are confronted with a community of frontier-hardened females who aren’t shy of guns but nor are they without compassion. An uneasy compromise is struck whereby the convicts are to be fed and lodged long enough to allow them to regain enough strength to continue on their way, but they must keep to their assigned quarters. <br /><br />The women are dominated by a trio of well-defined stock characters: Granny (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/97777-ethel-barrymore">Ethel Barrymore</a>) is the tough old matriarch, Rachel (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/13353">Ann Dvorak</a>) a spinster who hears the clock ticking louder every day, and Marcia (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/20124">Gene Tierney</a>) an outsider with a questionable past who’s engaged to Rachel’s brother. The balance of power among the fugitives rests uneasily between Canfield (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/3381">Glenn Ford</a>) and Greer (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/31551">Zachary Scott</a>), with the latter counting on the greed of the others to bolster his position. The thing is that Canfield was convicted of robbery and murder, and the $40,000 he is said to have stolen has never been recovered. Greer wants that money badly but Canfield wants something else, the man whose perjury delivered him to the hangman. The rest of the convicts comprise a thug, a bragging Englishman and a mentally unstable young man with a penchant for killing women. Factor in the added complication that the man Canfield’s seeking happens to be Marcia’s betrothed and the situation bristles with explosive potential. The film’s hour and twenty minute running time packs in a powerful mix of sexual tension and the looming threat of violence before coming to a satisfying conclusion. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mGDhWEa4oDs/U96iLYY1jGI/AAAAAAAATiI/RPPtZxjo5-k/s1600/Tierney,+Gene+(Secret+of+Convict+Lake,+The).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mGDhWEa4oDs/U96iLYY1jGI/AAAAAAAATiI/RPPtZxjo5-k/s1600/Tierney,+Gene+(Secret+of+Convict+Lake,+The).jpg" height="243" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tierney and Ford</td></tr></tbody></table><i>The Secret of Convict Lake</i> comes near the mid-point of director <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/123401">Michael Gordon</a>’s career, one derailed by the blacklist. Until then he’d been making B programmers and a few noir pictures, the enforced break would be followed by a move to glossy Ross Hunter/Robert Arthur productions. While this isn’t a straight film noir Gordon’s direction, <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/12279">Leo Tover</a>’s moody photography and <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/30922">Sol Kaplan</a>’s doom laden score all combine to create a darkly atmospheric western.<br /><br />The casting of Ford, Tierney, Scott and perennial heavy <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/103054">Jack Lambert</a> add to the noir feel of proceedings. Glenn Ford was able to play these kinds of uncomfortable outsiders with his eyes closed and Canfield is another in a long line of basically right guys who’ve been screwed over by circumstances. He’s a man who’s been brought face to face with death and has only his quest for justice or vengeance to keep him going. Zachary Scott, on the other hand, is all slime and self interest, prepared to use everyone to get what he wants. His calculating seduction of Ann Dvorak’s frustrated old maid is both creepy and (from her point of view) tragic. <br /><br />Gene Tierney’s natural beauty could never quite mask the demons struggling inside her, but that often worked in her favour on screen. Her Marcia is a similarly troubled soul, a woman with a past she desperately wants to leave behind and who is on the point of marrying a worthless man in order to try to make a fresh start. Canfield’s arrival and his subsequent revelations offer hope and despair in equal measure. Ethel Barrymore gives another variation on her wise old owl turn with a hint of that mischievous eccentricity peeping through – I always appreciate her presence in a movie. A word too for <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/4973">Cyril Cusack</a>, not an actor you expect to see in a western, whose talkative cockney provides Canfield’s ruthless comrades with their most human and sympathetic face. <br /><br />I found the film to be a very entertaining and tightly paced production. There are fine performances all round and, as I mentioned before, a welcome hint of film noir in the script, casting and direction. It’s a strong movie that really ought to be better known, and it gets my approval. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw5L5yOd_JJDC8f8cldUR4_0N_FsV8IjyTDc8doSb24jGTqG44Ja7l0shGJtAIiUzqgrLlbHYa3eV8' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0' /></div><br /><br />Written by Livius<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-744CGEZBNkE/U96hSteMpQI/AAAAAAAATh4/yWsUNNOY8og/s1600/The+secret+of+convict+lake+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-744CGEZBNkE/U96hSteMpQI/AAAAAAAATh4/yWsUNNOY8og/s1600/The+secret+of+convict+lake+poster.jpg" height="392" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/6lLtZvSsGJ8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>0http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2014/08/the-secret-of-convict-lake-1951.htmlThe Blind Goddess (1948)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/2qG3eMQvySY/the-blind-goddess-1948.htmlAnne CrawfordBrit noirClaire BloomEric PortmanHarold FrenchHugh WilliamsMichael Denisonsteve.eifert@gmail.comSun, 03 Aug 2014 13:49:35 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-711664874504972588<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XuT4G9qg_jw/U9VyGUuTPrI/AAAAAAAATfQ/ZI9YkVexoGE/s1600/blind+goddess+ad+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XuT4G9qg_jw/U9VyGUuTPrI/AAAAAAAATfQ/ZI9YkVexoGE/s1600/blind+goddess+ad+book.jpg" height="271" width="320" /></a></div><br />Derek Waterhouse (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/85934-michael-denison">Michael Denison</a>) learns from a friend (subsequently murdered) that his employer Lord Brasted (<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/30227-hugh-williams">Hugh Williams</a>) has been embezzling thousands of pounds intended for post-war relief efforts. He confronts Brasted who, while denying the allegation, offers his Secretary a ‘present’ of £10,000 pounds and employment abroad. Waterhouse refuses and Brasted, seeing Waterhouse has no proof, takes him to court in an attempt to discredit and ultimately destroy him. Brasted is urged on by his wife, Lady Brasted (Anne Crawford), who’s in fact a former lover of Waterhouse and who turns out to be something less than a lady. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5xmJknB8jVk/U9VyJtmfGLI/AAAAAAAATfg/ORFeZSj8Gj0/s1600/blind+goddess+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5xmJknB8jVk/U9VyJtmfGLI/AAAAAAAATfg/ORFeZSj8Gj0/s1600/blind+goddess+2.jpg" height="320" width="248" /></a></div><br /><i>The Blind Goddess</i>&nbsp;though based on a play by Patrick Hastings manages to avoid obvious theatrical constructions - thanks to a script by Sydney and Muriel Box that while wordy is not talky; also to the dexterous direction by <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/97212-harold-french">Harold French</a> (<i>The Hour of 13</i> (1952), <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2008/12/man-who-watched-trains-go-by-1952.html">The Paris Express</a></i> (1952), <i>Forbidden Cargo</i> (1954)). <br /><br />The little-known Brit-noir is rich with wonderful lead and supporting performances, among them those of <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/96994">Eric Portman</a> as John Dearing KC who serves as Brasted’s attorney and <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/29545">Claire Bloom</a> as Dearing’s daughter, Mary. Bloom is luminous in her first film role. <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/85344">Anne Crawford</a> as the treacherous opportunist Lady Brasted is also a standout. <br /><br />The full weight of this noir melodrama is felt particularly in the film’s tense courtroom scenes. However, not all is revealed there as evidence continues to be gathered and as momentum begins first to shift outside of court. The film’s narrative build-out is deft and disciplined and for that clearly owes something to the play. ‘The Blind Goddess’ is a splendid British film noir. At one time or other, it showed on BBC Channel Four but needs to find commercial re-issue on DVD to really get the attention it deserves.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwxc7YQkzPmHpM0bBa9j6hfG0G6qoYV4ABzQp5vPxmvbSw7B6eFsccWbcg_o9U_2L9Qjmxme85Tm6Q' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0' /></div><br /><br />Written <a href="http://noirworthwatching.blogspot.ca/">by Gary Deane</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DiIgyyG2TL8/U9VyJzDoeLI/AAAAAAAATfk/bfvP0leH_7g/s1600/blind+goddess+still.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DiIgyyG2TL8/U9VyJzDoeLI/AAAAAAAATfk/bfvP0leH_7g/s1600/blind+goddess+still.jpg" height="320" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/2qG3eMQvySY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>2http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2014/07/the-blind-goddess-1948.htmlThe Underworld Story (1950)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~3/C_tZ6JjZRUU/the-underworld-story-1950.htmlCy EndfieldDan DuryeaHoward Da SilvaStanley CortezUnited Artistssteve.eifert@gmail.comMon, 14 Jul 2014 15:54:12 PDTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13674632.post-6377381249885558954<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W7ytSWiPtvs/U8RcU0xeAKI/AAAAAAAATWI/4nlfjNXoAUQ/s1600/the+underworld+story.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W7ytSWiPtvs/U8RcU0xeAKI/AAAAAAAATWI/4nlfjNXoAUQ/s1600/the+underworld+story.jpg" height="640" width="396" /></a></div>Nobody could deliver a line quite like <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/64212">Dan Duryea</a>. My favorite comes in 1949’s <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2011/06/manhandled-1949.html">Manhandled</a></i>, when his slimy, gum-chewing private detective brags, “You’re not talking to a cluck Charlie. You’re talking to a guy who knows all the angles.” It wasn’t his wittiest line, nor was it the most hard-boiled or sarcastic, but it said a mouthful about Duryea’s screen persona. After all, the lanky blonde actor made a name for himself in the forties and fifties playing a series of pinstriped hustlers, leering hoods, and —&nbsp;believe it not — two-fisted&nbsp;misogynists. His sardonic losers always thought they knew the score, but by film’s end were seldom on the right side of the law, if they were even breathing. Yet in the period following the war, as the hopeful forties gave way to the uncertain and confused fifties, and as the fears of a disillusioned public began to creep into the movies, Duryea’s ability to contrast antisocial behavior with boyish charm, to “know all the angles,” or at least pretend to, made him more valuable than ever in Hollywood. He was uniquely able to actualize the audience’s itch to play those same angles, to grab a handful of that easy money, to flout those shiny post-war promises that most of them had missed out on anyway. And if the right property came along, Duryea might even get to play the good guy. <br /><br />That property turned out to be 1950’s <i>The Underworld Story</i>, a nearly forgotten and oddly titled film (it has next to nothing to do with gangsters) that thanks to the Warner Archive is now widely available. No mere programmer, the United Artists production is one of those rare low-budget pictures that offer a frightening snapshot of its time —&nbsp;of everyday Americans, their optimism sapped, struggling to get by in a new world amidst the tumult of progress. The film is complex without being complicated, though a detailed synopsis would require much more space than I’m allotted here. In a nutshell, it tells the story of Mike Reese, a venal big city reporter with a chip on his shoulder. Reese’s editors set him up as the fall guy after one of his stories gets a mob stoolie executed on the steps of city hall. Given a pink slip and blacklisted, Reese leaves town and buys into a sleepy suburban paper, but soon finds himself back in the thick of current events. A wealthy socialite has been murdered, and her maid —&nbsp;a black woman —&nbsp;is wrongfully accused of the crime. It just so happens that the murdered woman is the daughter-in-law of Reese’s former publisher, and the killer is the mogul’s spoiled son. Regardless, Reese believes the maid to be guilty, and burns through the majority of the running time playing both ends against the middle in an effort to line his own pockets. But as the story uncoils and the truth finally becomes clear to him, Reese is forced to make a decision between his own rank selfishness and the girl’s life. <br /><br />Director <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/76882">Cyril Endfield</a> turns in an intelligent and beautifully constructed film. It’s smart, well-paced, and looks beautiful —&nbsp;<a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/7648">Stanley Cortez</a>’s lighting and camera work holds up against that of any iconic film noir. Endfield coaxed great stuff from his entire cast, but Duryea in particular shines — <i>The Underworld Story</i> is one of the best roles of his career. Endfield wrote the screenplay himself, adapting a story by Craig Rice (pseudonym of mystery writer Georgianna Craig) with assistance from Henry Blankfort. The resulting script is foreboding, laconic, and brimming with razor-sharp dialogue. It undertakes a range of issues, including the power of the fourth estate to manipulate public opinion, the capacity of the wealthy to influence the judicial process, the country’s never-ending struggle with racism, and the capriciousness of small-town morality. However, if the project represented a zenith for many of its principals, for a few the nadir to come was life changing. The film’s multi-layered criticisms of the communist witch-hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee are so apparent that even the committee members themselves couldn’t have missed them. <i>The Underworld Story</i> goes so far as to give its lone black character, Molly (played by <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/93896-mary-anderson">Mary Anderson</a>, a white actress), the wrongly accused and persecuted murder suspect, the same surname as HUAC member John E. Rankin, the racist and bombastic congressman from Mississippi. Thus it’s no surprise that Endfield’s film (along with his other incendiary 1950 piece, <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/08/try-and-get-me-1950.html">The Sound of Fury</a></i>) drew the government’s ire: screenwriter Blankfort, actor <a href="http://www.themoviedb.org/person/79247">Howard Da Silva</a>, and Endfield himself would soon join the ranks of those defamed by the blacklist. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-THhKpMHMNgY/U8RdXyIipyI/AAAAAAAATWU/2zw8hqvlBzw/s1600/the+underworld+story+1950.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-THhKpMHMNgY/U8RdXyIipyI/AAAAAAAATWU/2zw8hqvlBzw/s1600/the+underworld+story+1950.jpg" height="320" width="254" /></a></div>Dan Duryea’s task in <i>The Underworld Story</i> was formidable. He had to create one of noir’s more subtle protagonists, a cynical, manipulative, and morbidly opportunistic reporter, his idealism forgotten somewhere among all the column inches and carriage returns. (Yes, Mike Reese will undoubtedly bring to mind the character of Chuck Tatum in Billy Wilder’s famous <i><a href="http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2009/03/ace-in-hole-1951-part-1.html">Ace in the Hole</a></i>, but <i>The Underworld Story</i> reached screens almost a full year earlier.) Yet unlike the Duryea’s heavies of the forties, this character had to take a sharp turn back towards the light, and bring a skeptical audience along for the ride. The Reese of the first two-thirds of the film is a scoundrel of the first order: a man who will exploit any situation for the sake of a payoff. Duryea’s tremendous range and feel for the part are most evident in two scenes involving Becker, a seedy defense attorney. The first —&nbsp;which shows Reese at his worst — happens over a T-bone lunch in the city, as he tries to convince the disinterested mouthpiece to take Molly’s case. Becker deflects him with a stack of fresh headlines that already have her head in a noose. “If she was white she wouldn’t stand a chance against these,” he says. Reese parries with money, offering to split the forty thousand dollars raised by the defense committee fifty-fifty. “She’ll hang,” sighs Becker. Reese’s response, “So she’ll hang,” is so callous that it stops the lawyer cold, a forkful of steak frozen in mid-air. Duryea knows that Reese must eventually turn the corner, but he also realizes that the payoff will be better if the audience harbors some doubt. The lunch scene is the linchpin in his character development —&nbsp;Duryea <i>wants</i> us to hate him.<br /><br />Yet Reese’s primary function in the film is redemptive, and his moment of transformation —&nbsp;new territory for Duryea&nbsp;— comes during his next encounter with Becker. This scene takes place at the penitentiary, where the two men meet in order to persuade Molly to cop to a reduced charge of manslaughter. She flatly refuses, knowing that a guilty verdict at trial will mean the death penalty. In her anger she compares Reese’s schemes to those of a slave trader, and rises to leave. “Even if you die?!” he shouts in bewilderment, to which she fires back, “All I have left is that I’m innocent. I won’t give it up!” This is the film’s big moment, when the fact of Molly’s innocence finally obliterates Reese’s cynicism. After she departs with the matron, the camera’s attention returns to him. Duryea underplays it —&nbsp;perfectly. His profile lit starkly against the shadows, he hems and haws, toying with his hat as he asks Becker to accept all of the committee’s money —&nbsp;including his cut —&nbsp;in order to give Molly a proper defense. Becker says the whole wad may not be enough. “How fat can you get?” scoffs Reese, the book on his cynicism slammed shut. Duryea makes the transformation so believable that by film’s end it’s impossible to imagine any other actor in the role. <br /><br />What still matters about <i>The Underworld Story</i> and Dan Duryea’s vivid performance is the extent to which the character of Reese had to resonate, at least in a few ways, with post-war movie goers — people who could drum up the cost of a double feature easily enough, but had somehow missed out on the gravy train that everyone was so damn sure of back in ’45. Duryea understood their frustrations, and he becomes a proxy for the audience, fulfilling their desire to act out —&nbsp;to mouth off, to do the wrong thing, to get rich quickly. A self-centered knucklehead who still manages to save the day must have been a welcome, even liberating presence on the screen. And although Duryea’s career playing the heel was typically thankless, he is now rightly regarded as one of noir’s essential performers. If his jaded screen persona is uninhibited by rules and morality, it’s only so the audience can bask in all that delicious freedom — at least until the end titles and house lights nudged them once again into conformity. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lv3Li9McKaw?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><br /><br />Written by The Professor<br />his blog is <a href="http://wheredangerlives.blogspot.com/">Where Danger Lives!</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MmkR0F2mXls/U8RdiyrVu4I/AAAAAAAATWc/bR14q9LQ5hA/s1600/underworldstory_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MmkR0F2mXls/U8RdiyrVu4I/AAAAAAAATWc/bR14q9LQ5hA/s1600/underworldstory_1.jpg" height="234" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/filmnoiroftheweek/~4/C_tZ6JjZRUU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>3http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2014/07/the-underworld-story-1950.htmlnonadult